


I STILL have to think of a title..

by OneCoolCat



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: A few characters are adopted, Connie is a bit cold-hearted.. at the beginning ;) :), Eating Raw Meat, F/M, Gems and humans do not like monsters, Kofi doesn't have kids either, Kofi is a momma's boy, Mention of blood, Mention of spit, Monster clichés, Onion and Sour Cream aren't related, Sour Cream is not related to Vidalia, Steven Jeff and Pee Dee are best friends, Steven is much more energetic and oblivious and childlike in this fic, Steven isn't apart of the Crystal Gems, The twins and Kofi are two different monsters, The younger werewolves act a lot like puppies, There are monsters gems and humans, Vidalia doesn't have kids, rough housing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-25
Updated: 2019-12-01
Packaged: 2020-09-26 17:11:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 26
Words: 66,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20393224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OneCoolCat/pseuds/OneCoolCat
Summary: Honestly.. I have no idea where this story is going and I don't know if I ever will. *Shrugs* I absolutely love fantasy and vampires and werewolves and stuff, but I haven't seen a lot of them for Steven Universe lately, so! I thought I would write a crappy one myself.So yeah.. Can't really write a summary on here, as I don't know where I'm going with this but, Connie and the townies are monsters except for some. The gems are trying to capture them. Aaaand scene.





	1. Chapter One

A cool breeze ruffled Connie's hair as she leaned back on an old oak tree. She was right on an imaginary median strip; Beach City on her left and Empire City on her right. She took a deep breath, taking in the many scents of the area; saltwater, a freshly killed fish a mile out at sea, butterscotch cookies being baked in a factory on the edge of Empire City, and a butcher shop deep in the heart of Empire City, just to name a few. She exhaled through her mouth. A smile on her face as she watched the sun peak behind the horizon. A faint orange yellow light reflected in a vertical line across the sparkling ocean in front of her. She soaked up the ocean breeze and the tranquility while it lasted. Soon enough, people would be waking up in both cities and painting the now peaceful and serene place to something more loud and smoke-filled.

She took another deep breath, watching the lightly hidden sun rise up over the horizon. She got up and stretched, lifting one arm up, then the other as she bent to the side, right then left. She picked up some peach cores laying by her feet and made her way down the petite hill, chucking the seeds in a nearby trashcan. Something moved from the corner of her eye and she snapped around to see a shadow on the sand just a few feet from her. She began sniffing the air. She couldn't recognize the scent. She waited, staring at the shape of the shadow. It shifted a bit. 

A few moments later, the mystery figure fled and Connie ran after it between the bushes. And. It had already vanished. She didn't hear any running or twigs being snapped and the scent was now about 50, 60 feet in the air. 

"Pffft... Birds. Not even worth it." 

She walked out of the bushes and pulled two leaves out of her hair and pulled her hood back up. 

She trailed back to her humbled abode, opening the double doors, quickly running inside. She stepped into the kitchen and went straight for the fridge, plucking two raw chicken legs and a wing and eating them. She stepped on the bottom of the trashcan, the lid opening up and she threw the bones in the trash. She went upstairs to freshen up; taking a shower and gargling a bit before brushing her teeth of the blood. 

She fell back on her bed, pulling the blankets overhead as the sun krept in through the blinds. She laid there, relaxed. Deep breathing. She had another peaceful night. Same as always for the past decade. Same 'ole routine, never getting old. Walking aimlessly through the far end of Beach City where hardly anyone ventured in, run through the forest, catch new and old scents, swim in the sea, find prey, relax on her own personal hill, and more. And all the while she's alone. Just she and she alone. Some monsters just sulk and berate themselves about being a lone monster, but her? She genuinely enjoyed her alone time and she never wanted it to end. 

She turned to her side and closed her eyes. The chirping sounds of the early birds sung through the air. "Pffft.. birds.." she mumbled, then drifted off to sleep, being lulled by their song.

..

There was a loud crash at the front of the house and Connie sat up abruptly, her eyes still bleary from sleep. She quickly tried to shake the drowsiness from her head.

"I'm telling you, _nobody_ lives here. It's been abandoned for like, decades." A tall, gray figure climbed through the broken window.

Another figure flew in after him, landing daintily on the newly polished floorboards. "I don't know. It looks pretty lived in to me. Look at this place. Would an abandoned place look like this?" said a feminine voice.

Connie eased herself off the bed, with a low creak from the bedsprings and went to the door without a sound. She opened the door a crack.

A third figure peered in through the window, then he looked back, scanning the pristine porch. "Neh, it's probably due to fairies.You know how they like to clean up and stuff. They go all flying around entering through the chimneys and cleaning up old places like these. Jane told me all about it." he climbed in, cutting his palm. He didn't flinch. "Oh, doo doo. Cut my hand." he said plainly. He held it up for the other two to see. A long deep cut stretched from his first digit down to the bottom of his wrist. A single drop of blood dripped onto the floor. 

"Duuuuude, what if a vampire comes out and like, bites you!" The feminine voice teased in a spooky whisper. She raised her arms, her fingers dancing in the air above her. "Creeeepyyyyy." 

"Would I turn into some kind of two-type monster hybrid?" he looked at his hand. 

"Niiiiice" said the grey figure. 

"Guess that would mean that SC wouldn't have to fly you anywhere ever again." she chuckled.

Connie trailed along the banister without such as a breath of a noise. She crouched down, behind a mat she'd laid over the banister. She peered at the edge of it, staring at the three figures in her living room. Her pupils as slits. She watched on as the one with wings flew over toward her couch.

"Yo, Sour Cream, Buck. Over here." 

The gray figure pocketed something and clumped his way towards her as the figure sporting shades took off a hat he'd found, putting it back on the clothes hook.

"This couch is nice." she sunk deeper into the couch. "Yeah, I could definitely get used to this." 

The other two joined her, sighing in content. "Yeah, Buck could get used to this. Feeling the back problems melting away already." 

"Hey, I wonder if those _fairies_ also stock up on food?" 

The two guys looked at each other, then Buck shrugged. "Don't know. Maybe." 

The girl flapped her wings, getting up from her sitting position, placing her feet back on the floor. "I'll check." 

She opened the fridge door and quickly shut it back. "Ew, gag!" she coughed out. "Yeah, fairies DEFINITELY do not leave you good food to eat." she spun and went back to the living room, her back facing Connie. "Hey guys, I don't know about you two, but I could definitely go for a bite to eat." 

"I could too." Connie growled behind the mat.

"Whoa, who was that?" Sour Cream got up, looking around. 

Connie jumped from the stairs and landed just a few inches away from the girl's feet.

She screamed and fell back, crawling backwards towards the two guys. 

Connie got up slowly. The three trespassers not leaving her predatorial glare. 

The girl put her arm down slowly, away from her face. "Oh, it's just a little girl." Connie snarled, the girl getting a better look at her. "AHHH! With a huge set of sharp teeth just waiting to gut our stomachs out! Just look at them fangs, man!" She huddled closer to the two.

Connie stood up tall, her chest out to make her look bigger and more intimidating. "What..are you doing.. in my HOME!!" she hissed.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Just.. just take a chill pill. We didn't know that this place had any residents in it." she squealed

Connie licked her lips. "Then what a price to pay for such misinformation."

"Don't eat us!" she pleaded

"You.. you wouldn't like me. I'm really gamey." said Buck. 

"Yeah! And I'm made of stone!" shouted Sour Cream.

"Shut up, you two! What if she likes gamey and stones!" she whispered.

Connie stepped closer towards them, the faint light through the blinds made her eyes a light, sparkling red. She turned her face from the sun, grunting. "You three had no business here..." she stated.

"AHHH!! I should've listened to Ganga!!!! Now I'm going to be eaten alive!!" the girl squealed. 

"Wait! Buck has an idea. Close your eyes." Sour Cream and the girl closed their eyes and Buck took off his glasses, staring right at Connie with his green eyes. _Nothing._ Connie looked at him, confused. He kept staring her. Connie began moving forward towards them.

"Uh, Buck? Can we open our eyes now?" the teen asked.

Buck put his shades back on. "Bad news. This girl's immune to it."

"What!" Sour Cream and the girl said over one another. 

Connie was right in front of them. She stopped. They looked right into her eyes and then.

"I can't move." Sour Cream said through his teeth, his eyes were stuck on Connie. 

"Me either.." Buck's breath was shallow.

"Please!! Please don't kill us." the girl pleaded. We'll go! And never come back!!" 

Connie went in closer.

"We just want to be safe again." the girl whispered.

The words whirred through Connie's ears and she stopped, just a mere few inches from Buck's chest. She turned to the girl, then leaned back, looking at the three. Sweat poured from their temples and the girl was crying, her mascara running. And she could feel their heartbeats thumping through their chest. She sighed, turning and walking away from them. "Just go. Get out of my sight." she waved her hand, her back towards them.

"What..?" The girl ask softly. 

"Get. Out." Connie repeated coarsely.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" The girl said.

She threw the doors open and they dashed out the house, leaving the doors wide open. She flew off and Sour Cream picked up Buck in a bridal carry and flew off behind him.

"Stupid teens.." she closed the doors and locked them back. She looked to her side to see the shattered glass on the floor. She groaned and went to the kitchen to get her dustpan. She knocked the rest of the glass out and swept it all up, ignoring the blood on the certain pieces of glass. She went back to get a washcloth and disinfectant, spraying the window pane. She smelled the air, noticing that there was still a trace of blood somewhere, until she stepped in it. She held her breath, quickly cleaned the floor and her foot off and threw everything away.

..

With the newfound square hole in her house, there was a newfound draft to come with it, though it wasn't like the cold was bothering her. The plastic bag rattled in the wind. She was wide awake, staring up at the ceiling on the couch. She didn't trust those teens in never coming back and she wasn't sure if there would be anyone else also claiming that they thought the place was abandoned. 

She watched as the sun settled behind the trees and she thought she heard a faint howl in the distance. She thought about staying in, until she looked at the table by the foot of the couch. It was gone. There was the lamp, the digital clock and an empty glass cup, but the ring was gone. She jolted up, wide eyed. "I _know_ they didn't take the ring." She checked around the table and in between the couch cushions. It wasn't there. "Okay, now those guys are going to get it." 


	2. Chapter 2

She didn't bother layering up. Thankfully, she could withstand the cold. She slipped on her sneakers and left.

She walked down a wooded path for a quarter of a mile and stopped once she was out of the forest, looking at the quaint houses and buildings much further down. She scowled dreading the thought of going to Beach City, bumping into the other locals. _But I have to get that ring back_ she thought.

She shook her nerves out, deep breathing and she started her next half a mile journey down to the city.

..

It was nighttime and the city was lively. It took her little to no time to reach the Welcome to Beach City sign. She tried to focus, ignoring everyone around her as they laughed, rode their bikes, flew in the sky, floated, roared, entering and exiting restaurants and transforming into various kinds of beasts. She passed by a restaurant named JJ and bros raw & cooked meats and underneath it, a saying 'We'll _meat_ your expectations'. The strong smell of raw meats wafted through the air and up her sensitive nose. She turned her head, just taking a quick glimpse at the heavily packed restaurant. She swallowed, turning back. A few blocks down and her mind was still on eating from the place, until a random voice cut into her thoughts. "Hey, you!" she turned around.

"Yeah, you!" the short figure ran up and stopped in front of her, panting. "You.. look new.." 

Connie was silent for a few moments. "No? I've actually been here for awhile. Probably even longer than you. I just don't venture down _these_ parts.. Anyway, I was up to something very important, so if you don't mind-" she backed up, slowly turning back around.

"Oh! Yeah.." the blonde gave her a soft smile. "Just.. thought I would give you a warm welcome." she fiddled with her fingers. "Maybe.. if you don't have anything important to do one day, you can stop at The Big Donut! It's been refurbished and remodeled and everything! And, and we just got in these new blood-filled cinnamon buns!" the teen had to yell out as Connie walked across the street. "Okay! It was nice meeting you! Hope to see you again!" she shouted.

Connie didn't turn back around. She walked up two more blocks and stopped. She groaned into her hand. "Where am I going? They could be anywhere.." she heard a trashcan fall against the side of the building and something fleeing from the corner of her eye. "Hey! Who's there!" Connie said in a deep, serious voice. She sniffed the air. The same scent from when she had left her spot from the hill. "You're not getting away from me this time." she ran off the sidewalk, through the grass and stopped at the tipped over trashcan. A shadow vanished as the figure fled behind the building. Connie continued to chase it, turning the corner to a dead end. A tall, barb wired fence blocked her path. "Now.. did you climb over the fence or fly over it?" she smelled the air again. Over the old scent, she smelled something else. Another person. It seemed vaguely familiar. A shadow appeared in front of Connie. It started getting closer and closer. Connie tensed up, snarling. She turned around hissing- 

"AHH!! Hey there!"

Connie shook her head. "What.. you again?"

"Yeaaahh" the stout figure giggled nervously. "Me agaaain. Hi~" she waved her hand.

"What are you doing here?" Connie heard a noise, like a car door shutting. She turned around behind her. 

"You seemed like you were upset so.. I thought you could use a pal to talk to."

With no other noise, Connie turned back around, raising an eyebrow. "Yeah?"

"Mmm, okay no! I mean, _yes_, but that wasn't the only reason! We people of Beach City try to keep a close eye out for anything looking a bit.. different than usual." 

"You mean suspicious?"

The teen bit her lip. "Well.. yeah.. kind of.. But you have to see where we're coming from, right? We just see some random monster out of nowhere and who.. doesn't look too friendly." she looked away.

"Well, I may not look the friendliest.. but I'm not suspicious in any way."

The girl still looked a bit uneasy.

Connie sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Look, you want to know why I'm here? These three teens took something that's VERY precious to me and I'm just. trying. to find them." she stepped closer to the girl and she stepped back. "Oh! Uh.. they broke in?"

"Yes.. Yes they did." Connie hissed. "Stupidly claiming that they had 'no idea' " she made air quotes "that anyone lived there. Ooooo, when I get my hands on that Duck and Cream Cheese!"

"Buck and Sour Cream?" the blonde slapped her hands over her mouth.

"Wait.. You know them? And the girl too?! Wh, where did they go!!" she grabbed the teen's shoulders, shaking it.

"Sorry, sorry!!!" the girl tried to break from her grasp. "I shouldn't had said anything!! It slipped!! I shouldn't had said their names out loud!"

"But they stole from me!! I need to know where they went."

"But.. I just don't feel safe in giving you there whereabouts." 

Connie let go of her. "Fine, whatever. I'll find them myself." she bumped the girl as she strode passed her. Her stomach grumbling for something to eat.

"You sound hungry." the girl changed the topic.

Connie continued to walk on.

"If you're really going on a journey, maybe walking on an empty stomach isn't the best thing." The girl followed a good distance behind her.

"STOP following me."

"Why don't you just come to The Big Donut for a quick bite to eat?"

"Why do you want me to go there so bad? Maybe _I'm_ the one who should be suspicious of _you."_ she turned to the girl.

She held her hands up in a placating gesture. "No, no! Not at all! I just remember doing that once.. I went on a long journey with my family once without eating and, there were some consequences." she trailed off.

Connie folded her arms. " I'll go with you to The Big Donut, okay? THEN I'm leaving." 

"Yeah, of course! N, no problem at all!"she ran past Connie and waited until Connie finally got to the building. She held the door for her with a smile and Connie trudged in, not so much as a thank you or even looking at the girl. The teen closed the door, her big smile turning into a nervous one. 

The store was brightly colored in yellow, red and orange. A big clear pastry case and a counter was placed at the back of the store. A tanned figure with wild orange hair down to his waist stood at the counter. He was picking at one of his pointy ears, ignoring Connie. She cleared her throat. He plucked something from his nail and went back to picking at his ear. 

"That's Lars. He's been working with me for quite some time."

"Yeah.. I can see that." she said sarcastically. "You think he can do something else other than being gross?" 

The boy scoffed. "Is this another one of Jenny's friends?"

"Who?"

"Nn nn!" the girl was doing a cut throat gesture.

"Jenny. You know. Who hangs out with Buck and Sour Cream."

"Oh yes.. I know them _very_ well. We're. quite. close." her sentence came out in a cold hiss.

"Hm, that explains the insult." 

"Say, you know where I could find them-"

The teen chuckled, jumping in between them. "Hey! How about those new blood-filled donuts-" 

"Cinnamon buns." he corrected.

"Cinnamon buns! That we just got in!" She ran around the case and took out three. "Here!" she all but shouted. She coughed. "It's uh, on the house." 

Connie took the bag cautiously and reached in. The girl was looking at her with wide eyes, smiling, while her coworker Lars looked uninterested, working on the other ear. 

She grabbed one and squeezed. "And what kind of blood is this from?"

"Cow." she smiled.

Connie bit into it, blood oozed from the other side of the pastry. 

Lars nearly gagged, looking away. "Aw, that's so gross man! How could you eat that?" he burped.

The girl nudged him hard in his stomach. "Just because you don't have the same diet as her doesn't mean you can be insensitive about it." she turned to Connie. "So, how is it?" 

She swallowed. "Not too bad." she finished the pastry. "Though now I'm craving for some actual meat."

"See! That's how it all starts! I'm getting out of here." Lars started backing away, eyeing Connie.

"Ew, relax. I don't eat." she looked at him. "Whatever.. it is you are.... Goblin..?"

"What!" he shrieked. "No!" He puffed out his chest. "I" he annunciated. "am a troll!"

She wiped her mouth off with her sleeve. "Hm, fitting." 

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Isn't it obvious? It means-"

"Guys! Guys! Let's AALL calm down, okay?" the girl took a deep breath. 

p>"She started it.." he grumbled.

"Alright, that's my cue to get out of here. I think I've overstayed my welcome enough already." she turned for the door.

"Wait! Uh.. But don't you think it's a bit dangerous to go outside all alone?" 

Connie gave a dry chuckle and turned back around. "Look at me. I think I can handle my own. And if those stereotypes are still holding up to this day, I don't think anyone is going to even think about messing with me. Now, if you excuse me, I have to go talk to someone about a ring." she opened the door. "And that someone is Jenny, Buck and Sour Cream." 

Lars chuckled. "Well I hope you plan on driving or flying. Empire City is pretty far aw-" the girl covered his mouth.

"Empire City?" she paused at the door, turning her head to them.

The girl stood still, her mouth a thin lines as she stared at Connie. Lars just looked at his co-worker in confusion, then looked up at Connie. 

She smiled, showing her sharp teeth. "Thank you, Lars." she said his name in a growl while looking at the girl. "Looks like I'll be paying Empire City a little visit." the girl started to say something, but Connie cut her off. "And don't you worry, I won't get lost. I'll catch their sent in no time and give them a proper welcome." 

"No, wait! Hey!" the girl called after her, jogging to the front.

"See ya! And thanks for the snacks!" she fled. 

"Hey, if you happen to see Buck, tell him my aunt's STILL turned to stone!" Lars yelled at the closed door. 

The girl turned stiffly towards him, a frighten look on her face.

"What? he did that as some sick joke!"

The girl shook her head in disbelief, her mind on that mysterious monster that just left and hoping that she didn't lead Jenny, Buck and Sour Cream to their doom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully this is coming along okay and I hoped you enjoyed it even just a little bit. 
> 
> Hopefuly I'll put another horrible chapter up within 2, 3 weeks.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Connie searches for Jenny, Buck and Sour Cream in Empire City

Connie retraced her steps, dashing through the city and ignoring the restaurant and everyone once more. The city was even more packed as the nocturnal monsters emerged from their homes.

The Beach City sign was just a few feet up ahead. A tall, thick guy with yellow fry-like dreads was in front of it. He was looking through a refracting telescope. His ears twitched back to the sound of Connie's footfalls. He turned around, pushing his glasses up. He seen Connie running towards him. "Ah, hello fellow mythical being. Are you here to check out the solid minerals in the universe as well?" he gave her a smug smile. 

"What? No." she went around him. "I have more important things to worry about."

"Something more important than the possible takeover of both monsters and human beings alike?! Why, what could be more important than that!" he shouted. He gave an exasperated sigh, returning back to his telescope. "Pfft.. fledglings." he mumbled. He pulled a cow ear out his pocket and took a bite out of it.

..

Connie hurtled passed the trees to the clearing not too far from her house. She took a quick glance at it. Everything seemed to still be in place, the plastic bag, still holding up. She ran up her hill and peered down. From where she was, downtown Empire City was still a thirty minute sprint and that's taking her speed into consideration.

She ran down the hill, keeping her balance as she stepped onto the dirt road. She continued her journey, the dirt road soon turning into a single paved road. A singular perpendicular road connected to the road she was on as she trekked further up. More lanes merged onto the street as the road stretched out. She was in the middle of the street now. Several cars drove by, honking their horns. 

"WHO RUNS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE-" she heard one of them shout as they drove passed her up one of the lanes. She looked back to see a few more cars coming and she finally decided to walk to the far edge of the road.

The buildings were coming more and more into view and she seen the _Welcome to Empire City_ sign. Underneath it, _What happens in Empire City, never sleeps._ The lanes were stretching apart from each other, going to different parts of the city. The metallic smell of blood and fresh meat from a butcher shop further down into the city caught her attention, but she quickly swallowed her instinct down, focusing on other various scents around her. 

She caught the smell of wet cement, the smell of flowers and honey and the smell of earth and fresh seaweed. The three intruders weren't far away. She followed their trail as some bystanders walking about the city gawked at her. One middle aged man pointed at his mouth to his friend. A mother was whispering something to her two sons, pushing them to walk faster. A couple teenagers snapped a quick photo unnoticed. More and more onlookers as she slowed her pace, their scents getting closer. "What are you looking at!" Connie hissed at a posh looking lady. She shrieked in surprise and hid behind her partner. "Uhg, relax lady, will ya?" she turned back around, following the scents. She followed the trail all the way to a dingy looking burger shack. The name of the store blinking in red on the window. _ Burgers n Burgers._ She took a deep breath. They were definitely in there. She entered. 

A hefty, dark brown skin guy was grinning from ear to ear at the counter. She noticed two fangs. "Hey there, newcomer!" he waved.

Connie suppressed a groan. "Hey.." she looked around the restaurant. 

"Meeting up with someone?" he kept his smile. 

Connie nodded, half listening to him. "Where are they.." 

"Well how about you order something and wait at a table until they come?" he suggested.

Connie shrugged, stepping up into the counter. The guy stood at the register. The biggest fanged smile still on his face. Connie stood there looking at him.

A few moments past with them staring at each other until the guy spoke up again. "Miss? This is the part where YOU tell me what you would like to order." he smiled. 

"Uh, yeah.. Do you have any beef?"

"Of course we do! We have burgers, stew beef and rice, beef burrito, sloppy Joe, beef teriyaki." he counted on his fingers.

Connie looked disgusted, sticking her tongue out. "Do you have anything that's _not_ cooked?"

"Our salads, our fruits, our yogurt, our smoothies, our parfaits-"

She shook her head. "I meant in regards to meat." 

For a split second, the guy's facial expression was the epitome of confusion, bit quickly went back to a big toothy grin. "Oh, is this for a stray?"

"No, for me."

His eyes shifted, looking around Connie as he let out a forceful gaffaw kind of laugh. "Wow! You sure are funny, little girl. Now, how about you really order something from the menu?" his smile looking forceful.

She sighed. "I'll just get a number 5." she chose any number.

"Great choice! I hope you can handle all of them spices." he laughed, though it wasn't as forceful.

"Heh." Connie gave a one chuckle laugh.

"So, what would you like to drink?"

Connie rolled her eyes. "Let me guess.. Blood isn't on the menu either, huh?"

The guy at the counter was belly up in forceful laughter. "Woowee, you are just too much, kid." he wiped a tear from the corner of his eye. "I think a HI-C would do you just fine."

"Fine, I'll just take that." she waved him off.

He pressed a few buttons on his register. "What size?"

"Uh...? What do you mean?" she tilted her head? "How big are your portions of beef?"

He stood there, wide eyed and cheesing away. He exhaled deeply through his nose. "Hey! How about I just ring you up for a small?" he strained, trying to sound bubbly. 

She shrugged. "Sure. So long as it fills me up." 

"Of course!" he pressed a few more buttons. "That'll be six eighty five."

"Oh right, money.. Yeah, I don't have any."

The guy's cheesey smile grew wider and she thought she heard a squeal from him. "OK! DON'T worry about that." he smashed a few buttons on the register. "THIS one's on.. the house!" he slid a white rectangular card vertically down the side of the register. "Aaaand, there ya go, kid!"

"Thanks." she said plainly, looking at him.

"Now you just have to wait for your food on the other end." he strained out through his smile.

"Oh! Um, okay then.. Over here?"

He nodded, fangs and all.

<>Two minutes later and the guy handed Connie a happy meal bag and a small cup.

She looked up at him confused.

"Well I figured you would want something more bright and cute than a dull old white paper bag." he grinned

"I mean.. both was going to end up in the trash anyway.

His grin grew deeper. "Well, I sure hope that what I put in the bag won't be thrown away!" he said with zest in his voice.

"What, the food?"

"No, silly billy. I put two little happy meal toys in there! That new vampire movie is, what do y'all kids call it, it's 'all the rage' now and we're giving away these cute little squeaky heart toys and talking character watches. I put both in there."

Connie looked at him. She held the bag she got from Sadie with her index and pinky finger, crinkling up the top of the bag as she held the happy meal box in the same hand. She used her other hand to put the cup down on the counter and opened the box, reaching and pulling out the watch, inspecting it through it's plastic. Then she put it back in the box and took out the toy and squeezed it. It squeaked. "And what exactly am I going to do with these?" she waved the toy in her hand.

"Well, you know. Have it as a little toy to play with or a keepsake of the movie. Isn't that what you're cosplaying as? A vampire, right? I am too! I'm cosplaying as a vampire as well! Check out these fangs!" he pointed at his teeth. "Yeah, that's just my signature. I cosplay a lot as monsters, whether a movie is out or not."

Connie frowned, getting defensive. "I am NOT _pretending_ to be a vampire.." she stepped up to the counter. "I _am_ a vampire." she scowled, teeth bared. 

The guy paused, his mouth stuck in a huge smile. She saw beads of sweat form at his temple and forehead. "Haha, well isn't that cute. Looks like you're trying to really be in character." he winked.

"I don't think you really understand. I-"

"No, I understand perfectly! And I think it's very cute. Yes, yes you are a vampire." he cooed.

"Uhg.. I'm out of here." she put the infuriating squeaky toy back in the box, closed the box back up and picked up the cup from the counter.

He waved back at her as she walked away. "Hey, Mr. Smiley! The toilet in the men's room is clogged up again!" he heard someone shout from the restroom. "They do not pay me enough here." he said through his smile.

.

Connie found a counter height chair, along the side of the building facing the outside. She jumped up and opened the box open with a light pluck. She picked up the burger and unwrapped it. She took a small bite. "Bleck!" she spat out the food remnants into a napkin. She rewrapped the burger and place it back in the box and she took out a fry and started nibbling on it. Just as unappetizing as the burger. She kept the fry in her mouth for show, unconsciously chewing on the end like a wheat stick. 

There was a burst of laughter as two girls left out the bathroom. Only one of them was laughing. Mr. Smiley jogged behind Connie, rolling a mop bucket. "Excuse me, ladies." he went passed them.

"I don't think that's funny.." said the girl. There was a distinct resemblance with the girl she was talking to.

"Of course it is! Man, you should've seen their faces!"

Jenny and the other girl sat down with Buck and Sour Cream. "Hey, we weren't that scared." said Buck. "And I don't even_get_ scared. Especially by some half-pint, baby vampire. But _Jenny,_on the other hand." he chuckled.

Connie overheard them, she turned her head. _They're they are._


	4. Chapter 4

"What! As if! I was SO not scared."

"You totally were." said Sour Cream. He looked over at Buck. "Hey, who am I?" he smeared ketchup underneath of his eyes and smeared the ketchup down his cheeks. "Oh, please, please Miss Vampire. PLEASE don't eat us!" he mocked in a high pitched voice.

That got a laugh from the two guys.

"Yeah and she was all like, we'll never come back here again!" Buck said in his monotone voice.

"Uhg, quit it guys, I wasn't even like that!" she blushed in embarrassment.

"No, you were more like." Sour Cream put on his high pitched voice again. "We'll never come back here again." he wailed. More laughter erupted from the boys. 

The girl put her hand over her mouth, a slight chuckle in her throat.

"Kiki, don't believe them! You should've been there! And Buck was all like, dude, Buck can't move and Sour Cream was all like, I can't move either."

There was silence for a few moments, until Sour Cream was the first one to crack, snorting, then all three broke out in laughter. Kiki just watched them.

"Hahahahehehe, hey, and you want to know what else is funny?" asked Sour Cream.

"What?" the three of them asked. Jenny and Buck were still trying to come down from their laughter and Kiki looked worried.

He rummaged through his pocket and pulled out a small ring made out of platinum. The initials P.C.D engraved on it. They studied the ring in the palm of his hand. He shrugged. "Doesn't look like much and it doesn't look expensive, but I figured I could sell it for like 20, 30 bucks at least." 

Connie gasped. The nibbled up French fry found its way down her windpipe. She choked.

They all gasped. "You stole from her!?" Jenny got up and snatched the ring from his palm and held it up to her face.

"Yeah." he said nonchalantly. "Took it right off the table before she started spazzin' on us and got all bleh bah bleh, I want to suck your bloooood." he chuckled.

Jenny's expression dropped, she twirled the ring in her hand.

"You're not _afraid_ are you, Jenny?" Sour Cream teased. Buck looked up at her. 

Connie grabbed the squeaky toy from the box.

"What! Oh, no way! I am NOT scared. I just.. can't believe that I didn't think of it." 

"Jenny.. I have a bad feeling about this. I think y'all should give it back." Kiki pulled on her arm.

"Oh, you're going to listen to the anti-fun police?" Sour Cream asked. 

"Stealing something shouldn't be classified as 'fun'."

"Don't you worry your cute little wings off, girl." she pinched the tip of one of Kiki's wings. "We already have the ring, we might as well just sell it at a pawn shop, like SC said. Besides, if we were to ever step foot anywhere near her house, she'll probably just tear our throats out, before we even get a chance to say that we're returning it. And you wouldn't want that to happen to me now, right?"

She sighed.. "No, I wouldn't." her wings drooped a bit.

"Then it's settled! We'll pawn the ring."

Something was thrown at Jenny's face. "Ow! Oh, my nose!" she said nasally, holding her nose. The ring fell back on the table.

The four turned around. The two guys jumped up and got behind the table by Jenny and Kiki.

"What are y'all doing?" Kiki asked, still sitting down.

"Du, du, dude. That's her." Sour Cream whispered.

"What?"

"The girl! The vampire chick!"

"Then it's settled." Connie mocked. She held out her palm. "Jenny will give me my ring back." her smile not reaching her angry glare.

"Oh yeah, yeah, yeah! You can totally have it. You know, I was just going to give it back and-"

"Yeaaah, no.. I already heard everything that you all said. Now Jenny, be a doll for me and." she looked at her with red eyes. "bring me my ring." She motioned her hand, beckoning her. Jenny dropped her hands, blood was sliding out of one nostril. Effortlessly, she picked up the ring. "Jenny! What are you doing! Don't go close to that girl!" Kiki held her arm.

"I can't!"

"What!" Kiki continued to hold on.

Connie gave a dry chuckle. "Kiki~" she sing-songed. 

She looked at her.

"Let _go."_ she waved her hand.

Kiki let go her expression fearful and nervous.

Jenny placed the ring gingerly in her hand. "Thank you." Connie held it up for them all to see. "This ring right here, could've caused you three your lives." she slid it down on her finger. "You have no idea what great lengths I would've taken, just to get this ring back." she whispered. 

She turned to Jenny. "Hmm, you know, you might make a good maid. You'll probably be of good use for something. I'll keep you under my control for now."

Jenny's eyes grew wide in fear.

She turned to the other three. "Rocky and Glasses could also be of good use."

"No!" , "No!" they started shouting.

"And please be quiet. Actually, all of you." she pinched her thumb and index finger together and ran her hand horizontally in the air. Their mouths were sealed shut, only muffled screams coming from them. She waved her hands and Buck and Sour Cream slid towards her. She looked up at Kiki. "You. You were the smart one in wanting them to give the ring back to me.. Unfortunately, you are officially a witness and I can not just let you go so easily." She clicked her teeth in a tsk. "You know what, what the heck, I'll just use all four of you." Connie made Kiki get up from her seat and walk towards her, her feet, kicking the toy over to Connie by mistake. 

"Wow, that was a pretty bad clog.. What are people eating these days?" Mr. Smiley was exiting out the bathroom.

"Your food."

He looked up. "Oh hey there!" he ignored the remark, smiling. "Looks like you found your friends!" 

"Yup." Connie smiled sinisterly. "Sure have." She picked up the pastry bag from the table and turned away, her puppets turning around with her. "Now we'll be going."

"Well.. okay then." he smiled. She walked a few feet up. "Hey! Wait!" she turned around.

"You dropped this!" he picked up the heart toy. 

"Oh.. thanks." she put it in her pocket and gave him a minute nod before heading out the door.

Another person slid in through the same door as they were leaving. "Hey! Welcome to Burgers n Burgers! What can I do ya for?" 

The guy held his stomach. "Eurgh.. A bathroom." he mumbled.

Mr. Smiley pointed in the direction of the bathroom with his thumb. "In the back."

"Thank you." The guy trudged on pass, breaking wind.

Mr. Smiley looked at the mop and bucket. "Heehee! They REALLY don't pay me enough to do this." he said through a forced smile. 

..

Connie and the others were standing in front of the restaurant. "Well, I hope you all like walking, because we'll be doing that for the next couple of hours." she pulled a second cinnamon bun out of the bag and sunk her teeth in it, drawing the blood out. The quartet watched in horror. "Ahhh." blood dripped from her lips. She chucked the empty bun in a nearby garbage can. "Flying is not really ideal. Don't want to make too much of a scene." _Says the person who just sucked blood from a pastry._ "Let's get a move on. I would like to get back before sun rise." she said brusquely, showing the reason why by waving her bare arm in front of them.

..

Two hours later, they were near the dirt road, away from Beach City. The hill right in front of them. "Hm, that walk wasn't too bad." she jest, not looking at them.

They walked up the hill and as they went down, Connie caught three different scents. She snapped around, left and then right. They looked at her and she turned to them, glaring at them. "No..There's absolutely no way any of you asked for help under my hypnosis.." she shook her head, glowering at them in disbelief. 


	5. Chapter Five

"Mm mm!!Mm mm!!" They tried to tell her, trying but failing to shake their heads.

"Then what..?" Connie trailed off, hearing a loud sputter of a motor from behind the hill. It was getting closer and closer..

Until it stopped. Connie braced herself, surveying the top of the hill. There was the sound of a door closing. Connie took another look at the top of the hill before turning around to the four teens. A figure jumping from behind the hill and behind Connie goes unnoticed by her as she turns back around, looking pass the teens to scour the rest of the area. They saw the figure, but was unable to shout out, only giving whimpers as warning signs. 

The figure lands right behind Connie and she snaps around. "Hey!" Connie shouted, jumping back. 

The tall, hooded figure stood there in silence. It's long, pink robe was flowing in the gentle breeze. It was staring down at the ground.

"Who are you!" Connie growled out. "State your purpose!"

The figure didn't look up. 

"Answer me!"

The figure took a step forward and Connie stepped back, cautiously watching the figure. It finally looked up. It wore a plain, white mask with two small holes for the eyes and a thin, horizontal line for the mouth. Two pink diamonds were painted around the eye holes.

"What...?" she whispered.

The figure lunged in one swift motion and Connie moved out of the way, jumping to the side. The figure lunged again and Connie dodged it again. The figure's back was now to Connie. "What, tired already?" she taunted.

The figure looked to be taking something out of its robe. It turned around slowly, holding a cane. A round, silver handle at the top of it. It ran towards Connie, the handle held at an angle as it swung with brute force. Connie bent back, the cane swinging overhead as it hit the ground, leaving a six inch divet into the earth. "So we're using weapons now?" Connie rushed towards the figure and it swung again, the handle barely missing her shoulder. The figure swung again and Connie caught it, grabbing onto the silver handle and the middle of the cane. The tall figure shifted it's glance from Connie's hand on the handle to back at her. She and the mysterious cloaked figure holding onto the cane as they each fought over dominance. Both of them taking steps forward and back as they used their strength to knock the other over.

The figure was bent down, matching Connie's height. It's face a few inches towards Connie. She stared at the blank mask, trying to peer through the two small holes, trying to see if she would notice the eyes from anywhere. Instead, within those small holes, she seen the reflection of her arm holding the cane. _Glasses?_ The figure lifted it's arms and swung the cane, Connie held on, standing her ground as the figure dropped her back down."You're not stronger than me.." Connie said through her teeth. The figure jumped up, landing a few feet away from her. The mask hiding it's expression. It's body upright and stiff. 

The quartet looked on, still not being able to move. 

The figure put the cane back in its robe and Connie ran towards it. It pulled out a string of garlic and Connie stopped in her tracks, eyeing and glaring at the deadly spice in its hand. The figure walked slowly towards her, swinging the string of garlic around in figure 8's. Connie braced herself, keeping an eye on the figure's hand movements. It switched hands and swung down and Connie stepped back. One after another, the figure swung down, left and right as Connie barely dodges the swings. The figure swung down again, hitting Connie's neck. A blistering welp formed across her neck and she held it as there was another blow to the head. She fell back, her other hand holding her swollen eye and blistering cheek.

The figure held the string of garlic in its hand and raised it's other hand in the air. There was a flash of light and a glove three times her hand came into view. The colors ranged in different shades of red, with four jewels along the knuckles. Underneath of the stones was a pink diamond. She brought the gauntlet down and Connie rolled over, the gauntlet making a huge crater in the dirt. She pushed the figure away and as she was getting up, it charged towards her, swinging the garlic and catching her shoulder, then swinging again, catching the other side of her face. Connie held in her screams, her body in blisters. She turned slowly, her shoulder crying out in pain. The figure raised her gauntlet again and just as Connie was about to dodge it, she used the other hand to strike her face with the garlic before one final blow to the head with her gauntlet. Connie slammed to the ground from the force. Out cold. The hypnosis was severed and the four teens had their free will again. The gauntlet disappeared in mots of light and the figure tied the string of garlic around it's neck.

The teens looked up at the figure who was now holding Connie over it's shoulders, not noticing or not caring that Connie's arm was touching the garlic around its neck. Small wafts of smoke was in the air as Connie's arm continued to burn from the spice. 

Kiki stepped back. "Did.. Did she save us? Or are we next?" she whispered to the group.

"I don't know.." Jenny whispered back. They kept their distance away from the figure, slowly stepping back. The figure pulled a flare gun from its robe and shot a pink flare up in the air. There was the sound of an engine again and a white truck shot forward from the top of the hill, skidding to a halt in the dirt. Two doors were pushed open from the back of the truck.

"This is our chance! Go! Let's go!" Sour Cream sped away from the hill. Jenny, Kiki and Buck right behind him.

The figure threw Connie inside and said something in a low voice to someone in the back of the truck. She pointed at something in the truck and another voice responded back. Another voice shouted out from the driver's seat. It sounded like a warning. The tall figure looked away from the truck, watching the teens as they ran down and around the hill. It said something to the one in the driver's seat and got in the truck. It drove off. 

...

"Should.. should we just...fly out of here?" Jenny asked between breaths.

"I think..we're better off running. They could probably..easily catch us if we fly. They would have a better..sight of us." Kiki looked back.

"You think..they're still following us?" Buck asked.

"Not sure.. But let's keep running."

They ran in silence for only a few seconds until Kiki spoke up again, guilt building in her gut. "Hey guys.. Do you think.. that little vampire girl..Is going to be okay?"

"Who cares! We've finally.. gotten away from that crazy chick! She's not.. our problem!" Jenny shouted.

"But what if they really..harm her? Like, torture her?" 

"And what did.. you think she was going to do.. to us!" 

"I know, I know! I..Just can't help but think about her.. all alone and.. helpless." Kiki stopped. "Whatever that thing was REALLY got her good. The girl was barely breathing when she picked her up." 

The teens stopped a few feet ahead of her. "Kiki, she just got...knocked out, that's it. She was still breathing." Jenny rolled her eyes. "It's their gain now. We need to get out of here... and save our OWN selves!" 

"I" Kiki looked back. "I'm sorry.. Maybe Steven is finally rubbing off on me, but.. I can't leave her." Kiki flew up in the air. "I'm going back!" she shouted and flew away.

"Kiki! Kiki, wait!" Jenny flew after her.

Sour Cream and Buck looked at each other. "This isn't going to end well." Sour Cream muttered. 

Buck shrugged. "Let's just follow them."

Sour Cream picked up Buck and flew off into the sky. 


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo, chapter 6 and 7's narration are written a bit differently. The writing splits between Connie and the other monster's point of view to the gem's point of view. And Chapter 7 goes forward and backwards with the timeline. Hopefully it's not too confusing. I tried not to make it like that.

"Let's think about this! Let's be rational here! I mean, what are we even going to _do_ when we find them?! And that's IF we find them. Blast them with our little pixie dust?!" Jenny was right beside her.

"So it's 'we' now?"

"Come on, girl.." she said softly. "You know I wouldn't let you do this by yourself."

Kiki kept her eyes in front of her. "I guess you wouldn't."

She shook her shoulders gently. "Of course I wouldn't!" she smiled, trying to lighten the mood. "So.. any plans on how we get Fangs?"

Kiki gave a light chuckle at the nickname, then she frowned, sighing. "I don't really know. I guess kinda play it by ear, ya know? That thing is pretty strong and fast, but it only won because it used that girl's weakness against her."

"I noticed that too." Jenny nodded. "And I don't think it knows much about monsters."

"Because it used that silver cane first, right!?" Kiki cut in.

"Exactly.. So let's just hope that if it gets a hold of us, that it won't find out our weakness." 

"It'll probably use the cane and the garlic again. We'll have to try and take it down before it takes out another weapon."

"How do we even take that thing down? You think it's even effective against any of our powers?"

"I have no clue but" Kiki looked down. "But we should think of something fast, 'cause there's the van." she flew further down, still keeping a great distance in the air between her and the van. 

"And we don't even know how many people are in that van. What if there's like.. Five or ten of them in there!?" 

Kiki flew further down and stopped. Her wings flapping lightly to keep her afloat. "I'm hoping for the better.. That it's nowhere near that many." she looked to Jenny. "I'm going for the front of the truck."

"Okay. And I'll try to open the doors in the back."

"Jenny! Kiki!" They heard Sour Cream's voice from far away. "We're coming! Just.. wait up!" 

They girls waited for them for a few minutes. The van now further away from them. "We're helping!" Sour Cream shouted out once they got closer. 

"Great! Now let's go! They're getting away!" Kiki was about to fly off until Sour Cream stopped her. "There's no way we'll be able to keep up with you two." he said. 

She looked at the van, very far away from them, then back at Sour Cream, still holding Buck. "If we were strong enough, we could each lift you up and fly you there."

"But, we can't." Jenny deadpanned. "The two of us can't lift you, let alone you AND Buck." 

Buck scoffed.

"Look. We'll try to distract them for as long as we can until y'all get there." Kiki zipped through the air and Jenny followed behind her.

...

Connie woke up with pain throughout her whole body. Her body felt like it was burning and her brain told her she was, yet, she still kept her eyes closed, not bothering to look if it was true or not. A huge, drilling ache pounded at the sides of her head. She couldn't get up. Every slight movement causing a sever burn or throbbing pain throughout her body. She laid there for a few moments, breathing in and out..

She opened her eyes slowly. It was dark. And cold. Two things that thankfully didn't bother her. Seeing in the dark, she saw bars in front of her. Garlic was twisted around and tied to them. She was in a fetal position. She slid up and winced, as the blisters on her shoulder scraped across the floor of the cage. She craned her neck up and seen two glowing eyes staring from behind the mask at her. Connie gasped, thinking that it was the one from before. 

This hooded figure was much shorter than the first one. And she could see this figure's eyes. It was purple. And the figure was also sporting a long, flowing pink robe, like the other one. The figure must've narrowed her eyes at Connie, Connie now seeing a little bit of her eyes. It got up slowly and walked lightly towards the cage. It crouched down towards her, hands resting on it's knees. It said something to her that Connie couldn't understand. Connie didn't say anything back and it tilted it's head. It said a few more words. Connie still didn't answer her. Her breath was shallow and blood and sweat poured down from her. For the first time in decades, she was afraid for her life. The figure gave what Connie thought was an irritated sigh. It shrugged and sat back down on the floor of the truck. It turned it's head and kept saying something over and over again. With the same syllables repeated two, three times, Connie finally made out the word 'Garnet'... _What does that mean?.. Kill? Awake? Prey?_

Their was a response from the front and the small figure said something back to it. There was another response from the front, a different voice this time and the figure chuckled. She folded her hands in her lap and began to stare at Connie.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 7 goes forward and backwards in the timeline a bit of times.

....

Kiki and Jenny caught up to the van. Sour Cream and Buck were nowhere near in sight. They were still keeping a safe distance away from the van. "Okay, let's try this again. I'm going to go ahead and try to distract them. Do whatever you can to try and open the doors." Kiki dove down, flying towards the van and Jenny dove down towards the back of it.

Kiki stopped just above the window, her shadow casting over the hood of the truck.

....

"Look. I think someone is on the roof." the figure looked at the shadow a bit closer, seeing the shape of wings. "or flying over it. Keep driving, I'll handle it." 

"Okay." said the slender figure. "Be careful."

The stoic figure gave a minute nod and climbed to the back seat. She opened a little door that divided them from the body of the truck. "Amethyst." She said to the figure still sitting down by Connie's cage.

" 'Sup, G?" she got up.

"Keep an eye and ear out for any potential threats."

"Someone's following us?" there was a twinge of worry in her voice.

G walked past her, not looking back. "It appears that someone is on the roof." she unlocked the hatch. 

"You think it's one of those monsters that got away?"

"They didn't get away, we just let them go." she opened the second hatchet. "And it's a possibility. Or it could be a totally different monster." she opened one of the doors a crack. "So many possibilities.." she whispered. 

"Careful out there." 

G gave a nod and opened the door, scaling the side of the truck and closing the door back.

....

The short figure said something to the tall one and the tall one looked like it gave a small nod to the short one before exiting out the truck. 

The short one locked the doors back and walked back, giving a side eye at Connie as it sat down on an empty cage. It shouted something at her and Connie winced. _What is she saying? What kind of language is that?_ She took a deep breath, her body still in pain. _How am I going to get out of this?..What are they going to do to me?.._

The short one looked up as hard footsteps pelted the top of the truck accompanied by light and dainty taps. Connie didn't turn her head, looking up at the roof of the truck.

.....

Kiki dodged another swing. Swing after swing after swing after swing. She was too quick for G. "Wow." she chuckled. "Sorry to say this but.. you're pretty slow." she chuckled again. G lounged at her and Kiki zipped past her, spinning behind her. G turned around and pulled out the cane from its robe. "Oh boy.. here we go again." she gave her a smug look. "Good luck catching me~." she leaped off the truck and fluttered away. G jumped off the truck, lunging towards her with the cane held above her head. She swung the cane down as she descended. Kiki dodged it with ease, changing her direction in a blink of an eye, as she zipped above G. 

....

"Looks like they're far away enough." Jenny whispered to herself, peering behind the roof of the truck. She scaled the side of the truck to the back of it. "Now all I have to do is.." she unlocked the two levers on the doors. She heard a click. "Et vòila." She opened the doors and a whip was wrapped around her. She was pulled inside and slammed into the divider. There was a shout at the front and the short figure shouted something back, smiling and bouncing up and down.

Connie moved her neck up a bit, the pain going away slightly. Kiki was upside down. Her arms tucked to her sides, the rope having wrapped around her a few times. "Kiki!?" Connie yelled. _What is she doing here?! Did they catch her too?! ..What about the others?!_

....

Amethyst slammed the monster into the back of the truck.

"Amethyst! What is going on back there?!"

"I got one P! I got one!" she started bouncing up and down. "Oooo, and this one has wings!"

The monster in the cage yelled out something and the other responded back. The one in the cage looked shocked.

"Hey, hey, hey! Pipe down!"

"Just give it a rest, Amethyst. It's not like they can understand us."

Amethyst groaned. "They SHOULD!! Homeworld language should be like, universal or whatever!" she looked at the monster tied up. "So uh..Guess I'll put this one in a cage too." she shrugged. She unlocked the cage she was sitting on earlier and the monster started squirming and screaming something. 

"Ah! Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Amethyst grabbed the monster and threw it in the cage, locking it up. "Man, they really are chatty." she walked to the divider and opened the door. "Yo Pearl, Garnet has been out for awhile. Think we should go back and help her?"

"I don't know! That's why I've even slowed my driving. She hasn't caught up yet and now, I don't see her OR that monster." Pearl looked in her side view mirror. "Garnet told me to keep driving. She seemed so sure of it. But.."

"You know.. before Garnet left, she said that there were lot's of possibilities. Maybe she.. followed the wrong one? That _has_ happened before." 

Pearl drew a breath. Her hands clenched tightly on the steering wheel. "I'll keep this pace for a bit longer. But if she doesn't meet with us soon, I'm going back."

There was a loud thud on the top of the roof as a solid gray figure tore through the top of the truck, tearing through the bottom of it. He got up, leaving a gapping hole. Dirt and sand was seen going pass.

"Hey, who the?! Pearl, it's another one of them pesky monster things!"

"WhaaaaAAT?! Another one?! I don't think Garnet foreseen this. That's it, change of plans. We're going back RIGHT now." The truck nearly tipped over from the force and from the monster tipping over to the same side.

"You do that, P. I'll handle this one." Amethyst reached into her pink robe. There was a flash of light and in her pink glove was a purple whip. The monster tempted to move away, but it was too slow. She wrapped him up in one swing. "Teehee, got this one too! Eeeugnnn!! Man! This monster's heavy." She heaved. She reached into her robe again and summoned another whip. She wrapped it around the monster's torso and turned around, pulling the two ropes in either hand. It didn't budge. "Uh, this thing is NOT budging AT all."

"Goodness, Amethyst.. Then just keep it tied up then! I'll handle it later." she pressed on the gas, the truck rocking and sputtering along the sand.

"'k." Amethyst summoned two more whips. The monster squirmed, mumbling something under his breath. There was tearing and then, the ropes ripped apart. "WHAT?!" she shouted.

....

"There they go!" Sour Cream flew down and saw Kiki flying around the monster from earlier. "And the monster has Kiki!" he shouted. 

"No. Looks like she's just toying with it. Look. That thing's nowhere near her speed." Buck pointed at the girl flawlessly dodging and flying around every gauntlet attack.

"But one hit and she's out. We need to help her."

"I'll do it. Just drop me. Maybe I can turn it into stone. You try and stop the truck. Jenny could be in there too." 

"Careful out there, man." Sour Cream let him go about 50 feet in the air.

Buck landed with a hard thud. Sand and dirt floated around his ankles before settling back down.

Kiki turned around to see Buck. "Buck!" she quickly regretted shouting his name.

The monster turned around and started running after him. The gauntlets disappeared and she pulled the cane from her robe. 

"Oh shoot. Good going, Kiki." she berated herself. She flew towards Buck, already passing the figure.

Buck grabbed the frame of his glasses. "Maybe I can turn it into stone." 

Kiki flew behind him and Buck took his glasses off. The monster got closer. "Buck, I don't think it's working. Move out of the way!" Kiki moved away and Buck moved, the cane hitting him in his shoulder. "Buck!" Kiki flew back towards him.

....

"Man I hope I don't fall on anyone.. Welp, here goes nothing." Sour Cream free fell, slightly gliding himself towards the van until..

There was a hard thud and the sound of metal ripping. He fell through. Then he nearly fell through the bottom of the truck. He caught himself, feeling a cool breeze down below. He got up and turned around. The small one was yelling at him and a voice was heard from the front. Suddenly, the truck made a sharp turn and Sour Cream stumbled, falling to the side of the truck. The small figure said something else and she wrapped a rope around him. She summoned another whip and threw it around him. She turned around, trying to pull him. She was saying something as she tried to pull him along. Connie, who was still laying down and Kiki both looked at the figure, then up at Sour Cream. He shrugged. It said something to the front of the truck and another voice responded. She turned back around and summoned two more whips.

Sour Cream squirmed. "Don't worry. I'll save you guys.. I think I can break out of this." he moved around, trying to move his arms up. There was the sound of the whips tearing and then the whips tore in two pieces, falling on the floor. The small figure shouted something. Sour Cream looked at Jenny, then at Connie. "Help her first!" Connie shouted. "No, her! She has more stuff with her cage." Jenny shouted, trying to wiggle out of the ropes. The figure ran towards him and he ran to Connie's cage. He started ripping the garlic off of a part of her cage and the figure jumped on him, holding onto his neck. She was trying to pull him back. It didn't work. He ripped open the cage. "Come on." 

She got up slowly and started crawling towards the opening of the cage.

Sour Cream spun around and slammed Amethyst back into the side of the truck.

A small piece of garlic that was hanging on the side of the cage nicked Connie's arm, causing another blister. She winced, getting up slowly. She walked over towards Kiki's cage. She took a deep breath and pulled on the bars, ignoring the blisters on her arms from the muscles.

The truck came to an abrupt stop and a door from the driver's side was heard being thrown open as Connie bent the bars on her cage. She crawled in. Sour Cream was holding Amethyst up and in a headlock. Her legs dangling under her robe. Connie bit down on the whips, tearing them apart. One of her fangs scratched along one of Kiki's arm. She flinched. "Whoops, sorry." She threw the ropes to the side. "Come on. Let's get out of here." They crawled out, looking at Sour Cream. "Don't worry about me. Go! I'll catch up!"

Kiki tried to lift up the first latch, but it was too heavy. Connie helped her, lifting up the first hatch, then the second. They jumped out of the truck. 

The side of Buck's face was bleeding from the blow from the cane earlier. Kiki was right by his side. The two figures, Garnet and Pearl were in front of them. Garnet sported her gauntlets and Pearl held a triton in her pink gloves. Garnet turned around and said something to Pearl. She pulled out a string of garlic and started wrapping it around the triton. "No, not this again." Connie grumbled. Jenny got in front of her. "Maybe I can take her on." 

Amethyst was thrown out of the car. She slid across the dirt and Sour Cream jumped out of the truck. She moved out of the way and he elbowed the dirt. A deep indent from the weight of his body. Amethyst jumped up and landed between Garnet and Pearl. 

"You had _one_ job, Amethyst." Pearl hissed.

"Yeah well, plans changed. Isn't that right Garnet?"

"Don't put the blame on her!" Pearl turned to Garnet. "Garnet, what's the plan?" 

Garnet unsummoned her gauntlets. _So many possibilities.._

"Garnet?"

She turned to her. "Pearl, focus on the ones with the wings. We need someone as quick and agile as them. Amethyst, the one with the glasses. I'll take on the other two."

They nodded and lounged towards their targets.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Gems vs Monster fight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please forgive me, guys. I know I wrote too much of this fighting junk on here. I'm sooo long-winded, it's terrible..  
Anyway, all that fighting stuff ends in Chapter 9.

...

"They're coming after us again." Jenny yelled. 

"Don't worry. We can take them." Connie jumped out of Garnet's way, dodging the string of garlic she pulled from her robe. Sour Cream charged at her and she turned around and grabbed onto his hands, the garlic being held between their hands. She summoned her gauntlets and he let go, the garlic still in her hand. She punched him and turned around to have Connie tackling her mid section. They slid a few feet and Garnet swung the garlic down, Connie moved, the garlic hitting her ankle. Another blister, just as the other ones were healing up. Sour Cream ran over towards Connie and Garnet stopped him. Connie walked up slowly, limping. 

Garnet seen her shadow and stepped to the side to see both of them. She was right in between them. She pulled the cane from her robe and wrapped the garlic around it. She started swinging it at Connie. She was dodging every one. Sour Cream ran up and held Garnet's arms, while she was focused on Connie. She flipped him and swung the cane down on his chest. No effect. Just the sound of silver on solid, mythical stone. He grabbed onto the can and twisted his body. Garnet kept her balance and pulled the cane from his grip just as Connie kicked the cane out of her hand. She flinched in pain, hitting the blisters on her ankle. Garnet ran for it and Connie ran passed her, carefully grabbing the cane by the bottom of it. "Sour Cream!" he was running up and Garnet stopped to meet him. "Go up!" 

"Huh? Oh!" He flew up, avoiding Garnet and Connie paulvot it to him. He caught it and began crumbling the cane and the garlic. Dust remnants started to fall from his hand.

.......

Amethyst flipped in a rapid spin, spin dashing towards Buck. She ran into him and he fell back. She ran into him and rolled over him again, again and again. She stopped, summoning two whips, wrapping him up. She laid one foot on him. "THAT was too easy." she chuckled. 

.....

Jenny and Kiki were circling around Pearl. She looked left and right, trying to keep an eye on both of them. She held the triton close to her. Kiki tried to grab for it and Pearl twirled around, her leg out in a roundhouse kick. Kiki bent back and threw a kick back. Pearl stopped it with her triton and Jenny went to grab her by her arms. Pearl slid to the side, bending down and slid her foot. Jenny jumped up and over Pearl as the gem ducked and twirled again as Kiki tried to grab her head when she ducked down. The three twirling, ducking, gliding and bending as they dodged each other's attacks. Jenny hopped to the side. "She's just as agile...and limber as us." she panted. "And it doesn't even look like...she's out of breath." 

Kiki went for another punch and Pearl dipped to the side and spun vertically for a surprise kick. She dodged it and jumped back to stand by Jenny. "Yeah.. It's no use. She's just too fast."

A realization came over Jenny and she facepalmed. "Kiki, that's it! Oh man, I REALLY can't believe we didn't think about this." she raised her hands and yellow dust formed around her hands. 

Kiki shook her head. "I tried that already. With the tall one. None of the dusts work." 

"You're kidding me..WHOA!"

Pearl tried to sneak up on her, swinging the triton. Kiki shifted to the left and flew up in the air and Jenny followed her up. Pearl jumped up at an equal feet, trying to strike them with the prongs of the triton.

"WHAT?! I didn't know they could jump this far up!" Jenny shouted as Pearl landed back down. 

"Yeah, the other one did that too."

Pearl jumped up again and the two flew opposite ways, avoiding her entirely.

"Forget about this! Let's help out Buck instead and leave her alone." Kiki flew towards Amethyst. She turned around and summoned a whip. She threw it and Kiki dodged it, flying past it easily and punching Amethyst. 

"Whoa! Oof!" Amethyst slammed into the dirt. "Eh, lucky shot." she grounded out. She summoned two whips and made a spin dash towards her. Kiki was shaking her hand from the pain. Sucking in some air. "SSHHH! Yeah, that's definitely a sprain. Oh crap!" she flew up and Amethyst bounced up, still in a spin dash. The whips spinning with her on either side. Kiki ducked out the way. "Whoa! How the heck can you do that in mid air?! Whoa!" she dodged another airborne dash.

....

"Don't worry, Buck. Almost got you free." Jenny was untying the last whip. Too preoccupied with the rope, she didn't notice Pearl coming. 

"Jenny, that thing is coming back!"

"What?"

Pearl was rounding on them. Jenny moved away just in time. Still unable to move, with the last whip still around him, Pearl hit Buck in the face, knocking his glasses off. He fell to the ground.

"Uhhhg!!! Just. Get. Away. From him!" Jenny stood in front of Buck, throwing punches at Pearl and missing. Jenny raised her hand and yellow mist formed around it. She threw the dust and Pearl jumped up, landing a good distance away from them.

Not realizing it, Jenny turned back around to help Buck out. "Buck are you okay-" green eyes were looking back at her. "Yeah, I'm alr-. Oh shoot!" he clenched his eyes tight.

Gray, cement-like matter started growing from the soles of her feet on up. "Ah! Darn it, Buck! This is the fourth time you've d-" Jenny was stuck in an angry look, her hands clenched. She was still crouched down.

"Jenny!" Kiki called out from the sky. She dodged another spin dash and flew back to the ground. 

Pearl was poking Jenny with her triton. Nothing happened. Then she went to Buck, lifting his chin up with her triton. Blood sliding down his temple from the last hit. He cracked his eyes open. The blank mask staring right back at him.

Kiki lunged behind Pearl. Her shadow gave her away. Pearl turned around and leaned out the way. Kiki shut her eyes as she flew past Buck. She turned back around. Amethyst stopped right beside Pearl, her whips disappearing in mots of light. They were right in front of Jenny and Buck.

"What happened to it?"

"Looks like it's in some kind of stasis of some sort. Presumably because of that." she pointed her triton at Buck.

"Heehee, good going." Amethyst mocked at Jenny's form.

"Aaaand look who's coming back." Pearl jumped out the way and Amethyst lunged forward, dodging Kiki. They landed back on the ground. 

"Be careful, Amethyst. That thing can make some kind of mist. I don't know what it does, but it's best to stay clear of it." 

"Hm." Amethyst nodded, eyeing Kiki.

.....

Garnet had one of Sour Cream's legs. She spun him around and threw him.

Connie jumped up and tackled her from the side. She held on to Garnet as she slid across the dirt. Her hands stuck to her sides as Connie continued to hold on. She squirmed, trying to brake out of her vampire vice grip-like hug.

"Ha! TOLD you you're not stronger than me!" Connie taunted, staring at the mask of the figure. "Huh?" Garnet had bent down, lunging onto her feet and she jumped up. Connie still held on. "So what! You can jump high in the air! That doesn't effect my grip on you!" 

She turned down towards the ground, shoulders first. Connie clicked her teeth. "Ah. You're trying to smash me into the ground. Hm. Good move."

Connie timed the crash, letting go of Garnet as she plummeted into the ground. Connie leapt back and Sour Cream ran up to meet her. "Wish I knew what their weakness was."

"Yeah." Connie agreed. "They have to have one."

Garnet was getting up. The mask was half way off her face. Her blue eye, nose, cheek and her lips being shown. She fixed the mask back into place.

"I've never seen that kind of monster before." Connie said. 

Sour Cream shook his head. "Me either. I wish I could see it's whole face. Maybe I could tell then."

Connie seen Kiki from the corner of her eye. She was flying towards Amethyst. She summoned a whip and threw it.

Pearl was standing by Buck, guarding him. Jenny was still stone.

Garnet ran towards Sour Cream and Connie. "Sour Cream, follow me! We need to help the others." They ran towards the other fight. "Kiki! Keep distracting it! I'm going to try and take this one down."Connie ran towards Pearl.

"Gotcha." She flew up in the air.

"Uuuuuuuugh, come ON! THIS again?!" Amethyst growled. Spin dashing up in the air, the whip still in her hand.

Pearl swung her triton and Connie caught it, yanking it easily out of her hands. She made a startled, shocked yelp. Connie swung it and Pearl leaned to the side. Connie swung it quicker, quicker than she could dodge it, the triton hitting her in her neck.

She stumbled back and Connie went for another strike. The triton disappeared just as she was about to strike her again. "How did that-?" 

Pearl threw a punch and Connie caught it, bending her hand back. Pearl threw the other hand and Connie caught it. She tightened the grip on her hands and spun around, throwing her. A "Whooaaa!" as she flew across the air.

Garnet went for a kick and Connie bent down, the kick hitting Buck in the back of his head. He fell forward, barely missing Jenny. 

"Ooo, sorry Buck."

A groan. Then a muffled "It's okay." his face, still in the dirt. He pulled his self up again. Garnet summoned her gauntlets and dashed towards the two.

Sour Cream held his ground as Pearl ran towards him. She summoned a spear. He chuckled, unphased by it. He didn't bother moving as she swung down hard. The spear broke in half. The mask looked at the half a spear in her hand. The two pieces vanished from her hands and she held one hand up, in front of her forehead. A string of garlic formed in thin air and she started swinging it around. It touched him. No effect. She dropped them and summoned the silver cane. She wacked him with it. No effect. Pearl stood there. 

Sour Cream tried to grab her and she leaned back and jumped away, landing by Garnet who was getting up from a punch by Connie. "Bad news. That thing's not phased by my attacks OR the garlic or the silver." 

"Don't worry about it. We need to get THAT one." referring to Connie.

"Buck, I'll be back. I'm going to try and help Kiki." 

"Okay."

Connie bit threw the last whip, got up and ran towards Amethyst who was spin dashing towards Kiki. Buck picked up his glasses and put them on.

Connie tackled Amethyst out of her spin dash. The whip vanishing from her hands. Amethyst got up. "Oh now YOU want some too?!" She spun towards Connie and she held her ground. Amethyst ran into her, still spinning. Sand and dirt kicked up as Connie held Amethyst in place. Small scratches formed on her arms and face as she held on. Amethyst stopped spinning and leaned into a punch. Connie took her arm and threw her into Garnet. "We really, REALLY need to take that one down." she growled.

"I know." Garnet turned. "Watch out!" Kiki flew past them as they jumped out the way.

"I'm getting sick and tired of that one too, zipping around like that." 

Garnet stood still.

"Garnet?" Amethyst looked up.

"I'm going after her again." she charged after Kiki. 

Buck looked at the truck, then got an idea. He looked back at the fight and slowly and cautiously started slinking away to it, unnoticed.

Kiki landed by Connie, panting. "Okay, looks like... we can't take them. Seems like each of us,...aside from you, have one strength over them, but...too many weaknesses." 

Garnet lunged towards them and Connie stepped in front of Kiki, grabbing Garnet's hands.

Connie silently agreed with what Kiki said. Aside from her, they each had one or two strengths over the gems, but the weaknesses canceled out. Kiki and Jenny were faster than Buck and Sour Cream. They were even faster than Garnet and Amethyst. But they were too dainty. Their punches would be ineffective with Garnet and Kiki had already sprained her hand punching Amethyst. They could effect Pearl with their hits, but they're not faster than her to throw those punches. Sour Cream could definitely do some damage to every one of the three with his strength, but he was so painfully slow, he wouldn't be able to get a hit them. Then there's Buck. And Buck is just.. there. He couldn't turn them into stone. Connie sighed, still holding onto Garnet's hands. "Okay." said Connie, still holding onto Garnet. "We'll have to just dive right on in. You, Sour Cream and I. We go in and attack one of them together." 

"Surprised we didn't do this ages ago. Would've saved more time..But okay, let's do this. Who are we going with first, this one?" 

Amethyst and Pearl were walking up towards them. Sour Cream caught up to Connie and Kiki, standing by them. "Good news. The slim one's attack can't harm me."

Connie widened her stance and twisted her body, swinging Garnet only a few feet, opposite of Pearl and Amethyst. "We're going for the small one. Sour Cream, that's great. But our plan now is to get that one." she pointed at Amethyst and she looked alarmed. "She's pointing at me, Pearl." she tried to not sound too worried.

Pearl summoned a spear. "Then they're plotting something. Stay close, Amethyst."

Connie, Sour Cream and Kiki ran towards her. Pearl cut in front of Amethyst and Connie jumped in front of Kiki and Sour Cream and grabbed Pearl's spear, pulling it in. Amethyst summoned two whips and Sour Cream tackled her and they rolled on the ground, her mask coming off. He held on to her arms. "Pearl! It got me!" 

"Amethyst!" Pearl tempted a roundhouse kick and Connie ducked. Pearl ran towards Amethyst and Garnet landed near Kiki, stopping her from getting to Sour Cream and Amethyst. Connie ran up and stood between them. "Okay, this is enough. We NEED to find their weaknesses! I'm going for the face." she said coarsely. "I'm ripping the masks off."

Garnet braced for an attack as Connie ran up to her. She jumped over her. 

Sour Cream held on to Amethyst as Pearl tried to scratch the surface of his skin with her two spears that she summoned. Still no effect. Connie landed on Pearl. She spun around with Connie on her back and she ripped her mask off before letting go. "Got it!" she ripped the mask in half and looked at the figure. "Just.. what are you?" Connie stared at a circular white rock on her forehead.

Amethyst squirmed more in his hands. "Keep still, will ya?" he grumbled. He tightened his grip even more. "AHH! Pearl! Garnet!" They turned around. Sour Cream's grip not letting up.

A burst of purple mist surrounded Sour Cream and he realized he wasn't holding the figure anymore, only a robe. The mask falling on the ground. He jumped back, coughing.

"Amethyst!" they shouted in unison. Garnet and Pearl left Kiki and Connie respectively, going for Sour Cream.

"Was that some kind of poison?!" he coughed. He got tackled by Garnet. 

The mist cleared up and a purple, shiny rock laid in the dirt.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More fighting *shrugs*

"Did she pull a ninja trick and leave that instead?!" Kiki asked, running up to Connie. 

Pearl picked up Amethyst's gemstone.

"I'm not sure, but that thing picked it up. Maybe it's the thing's defense mechanism of some kind." she started running to Sour Cream.

"You're thinking that rock is still her?" Kiki followed her.

"Could be. Remember, we don't know WHAT they are. Anything can go with these guys. But it seems like they can't attack in that state." 

Pearl put the gem in her robe and ran in front of Connie and Kiki. She glared at them.

"So we're going for the main one?" Kiki gave her a smug look.

"You know it." 

Sour Cream got up, with Garnet holding onto his neck. He moved his wings, trying to bat her off. He grabbed one of her arms and body slammed her into the ground.

"With enough force, maybe we can turn her into a rock too." Connie hypothesized. She jumped over Pearl.

Kiki chuckled.

Connie tilted her head. "What's so funny?"

"It just sounds so funny when you put it like that." Kiki landed near her.

"Well unless I find a word for what happened, I'm sticking to that." Connie jumped on Garnet, pulling her arms back. "Kiki, quick! Her mask!"

"We got you now mysterious figure." she flew towards her. "Now let's see who this culprit is behind the maAAAAAHHHHHHh!!! What the-" she dropped the mask and flew up and far away."Connie that thing has three freakin' eyes!!!" she shouted from the sky

"What!" Connie said in disbelief. She let go and jumped back. Garnet turned around slowly. Connie looked up to see three glaring eyes at her; each eye a different color. A blue and red eye and a purple eye at the top. _That's definitely not a monster.. What is it?!_Garnet and Pearl charged at Connie.

"Connie! Oh!..Man! ..I gotta go down there and face that creepy thing and that other one." Kiki forced herself to fly back down, trying to swallow that irritating lump of fear down.

..

Buck was still snooping around in the truck. After searching the back and finding nothing, he went to the front and found a black device. It had two prongs and a long black handle. He also found a small pink pyramid laying in one of the seats. He put both of the two items in each pocket.

Now he was searching through the glove compartment. Nothing but snack wrappers. He closed it and started checking underneath of the seats.

...

Kiki was face to face with Garnet, who now had the top of the eye closed, protecting it from the fight. "Nnnggg, what are we fighting, Connie?!" she kept dodging her punches.

"I don't know!" Connie kicked Pearl and Sour Cream tried to go for a tackle, but Pearl jumped away. 

Garnet summoned her gauntlets, her face hard and sinister. Terrified, Kiki looked away and threw her hands up, quickly throwing purple mist in her face.

Garnet gave a low growl, stepping back. She kept blinking her eyes as tears started running down her face. "Connie! So they really are effected by it!"

"What?" Connie dove down as Pearl jumped towards her. 

Garnet was still trying to see out of her eyes, blinking hard."They're effected by the dust!" she said happily. Garnet cracked open her eyes and Kiki threw another fistful of purple dust into it. Garnet couldn't open them. The poison tainting her eyes. Kiki laughed, getting cocky. She punched her and immediately regretted it, breaking her hand and dislocating her shoulder. She hollered out in pain. "Is this thing made out of stone like Sour Cream too?!" She took her other hand and sprinkled blue dust over her shoulder down to her hand. Her shoulder was fully healed and her hand was fully healed. For the second time.

"Garnet!" Pearl stopped fighting Connie and Sour Cream and ran to her. "Don't worry, I'm coming!"

"No!" she barked out. "I'm fine. YOU need to be careful. Watch out for the one with the wings."

Pearl stopped in her tracts. Torn between ignoring Garnet's orders and helping her or going back to try and defeat Connie and Sour Cream.

She ran back to the two monsters.

"Connie! Come here! You can take her down now!" Kiki yelled. "She can't open her eyes-EEEE!!" Kiki shrieked. Garnet's top eye opened. It moved rapidly, side to side and up and down. "What is that thing doing?!" spooked, she flew back behind Connie. "That thing is doing something freaky with it's eye."

"It can't see. Maybe it's using it as a spare eye to see."

Sour Cream ran as fast as he could diving for Pearl. Still nowhere near as quick enough, she easily bounced out of the way, landing daintily on her toes.

Garnet stood still. _In this particular path, I can take seven steps up, turn left and hit the one made out of stone.. Wait, maybe I can take the other path and jump up in exactly 20 seconds to capture the one with the wings JUST as she's dodging another attack.. or maybe another path. Or that one.. or that one.._Garnet grinded her teeth in frustration. _Which one is the correct one? Each of them could be wrong or altered in their own way.._She went for the first path, running for seven steps and turning left. She threw a punch at Sour Cream who's back was turned, too focused on Pearl coming at him. He fell head first into the ground.

She continued to go after him and Sour Cream flew up in the air. She punched the air a few times and stopped, noticing that he either flew up or jumped out the way. Her eye continued to rabidly move up and down and side to side, looking at paths that the others couldn't see. She chose a third path and jumped forward, hitting nothing. He was in the opposite direction. "Guys.. I don't think that eye is acting like an.. eye? I don't think she can really see out of it." Sour Cream said to the others on the ground.

"What? Sour Cream, you're not making any sense." Kiki grabbed a hold of Pearl's spear, but Pearl yanked it up over her. Kiki flipped, landing on her back. Pearl turned and swung down and Kiki flipped back over and jolted away.

"Well look at it." he pointed at Garnet standing still, then running a few feet into a high kick. Nobody was there.

"We can't look now, Sour Cream." Connie banked left, dodging a spear. She grabbed Pearl, throwing her again.

Garnet ran up to her and turned left, throwing a punch. Connie dodged it, then threw a punch, Garnet stood still, not dodging it, as if she didn't know it was coming. Connie threw another and Garnet just so happened to dodged it in time, going the third path of waiting 3.5 seconds to move. Connie threw another punch and she leaned left, leaning right into the punch. 

..

Buck was exiting out the truck. He didn't find any more items aside from the two he had already found. He left out the back of the truck. Pearl saw him. She gasped. "I can't believe it! We forgot all about that other one!! They distracted us!!" she growled out. She didn't waste any time stopping her fight between her and the two monsters to run after Buck.

Garnet looked on _She's going to get poofed if she goes after him._ "Pearl, don't!"

Pearl stopped and looked back at Garnet.

_Or she dodges the one with the fang's attack and not get poofed... And she ends up hitting the monster in the head, knocking it out._ "No wait.. We could get an advantage if you do that!" ._..Or he doesn't get knocked out and the one made out of stone sneaks up on her and grabs her and throws her into the truck with enough force to poof her._

"Or.. not.." she growled out.

The sun was beginning to peak over the cloudy horizon.

"Garnet?.. Do I.. Do I go or not?"

"I... Pearl.." she was looking at an endless amount of possibilities. She froze, not knowing which one to take. She couldn't see.. only to really on visions..

There were too many of those monsters and each of them were so unique and she didn't know anything about them. They could literally do any of the paths that she was looking at.

"Something is going on with the main one! I'm going after her!" Sour Cream flew down.

"That's it! I'm going Garnet!" Pearl ran towards Buck. 

The sky was getting brighter as the sun continued to rise. The faint rays lightly burning Connie's skin. She ignored it. 

"Kiki, get Buck! I'll go after that thing." Connie dashed to Pearl and Kiki flew towards Buck.

Connie jumped on Pearl's back, hanging on to her.

Pearl spun around and slammed her into the truck. Connie still held on.

Sour Cream was holding on to Garnet, trying to do the same thing he did to Amethyst. It wasn't working. "I don't think she's easy to uh.. turn into a colorful rock." he strained out. Garnet leapt up and towards the truck, her eye still going around.

Connie let go of Pearl, then took a quick look at the truck. "..You think a truck would work?"

Sour Cream looked shocked. He landed with Garnet. "Um.. You know, maybe that'll work." he tried to shrug while still holding on to her. 

Pearl was already focused on Buck and Kiki, running towards them. 

Garnet was looking around, trying to figure out what she could do next. 

"Sour Cream!" Connie lifted up the truck, ignoring the burns on her skin as the rays grew brighter in the sky, the sun halfway passing a cloud. "Whoa." Buck, Kiki and Sour Cream gawked. Pearl's back was facing Connie, too focused on the two in front of her.

"Let go!" Connie spun around and threw the truck. Sour Cream let go.

Pearl saw the truck fly past her. "Garnet, move!-"

The truck slammed into her and slid along the ground. Reddish dust seeped from the sides of the truck.

"I think you did it, Connie!" Sour Cream looked at the truck. Pearl ran past everyone and towards the truck lifting the it up, effortlessly. A red and a blue rock laid beside each other. Pearl picked them up and put them in her robe. She sighed deeply. She turned to the monsters. They braced for it. She stood there for a few moments with the spear still in her hands.. And then it vanished in mots of light. "This isn't the last you've seen of us." she said and got in the truck. They didn't understand what she said.

"Should we go after her and finish her off too?" Sour Cream looked at Connie.

Pearl put the key in the ignition and turned it.

"No. I have a bad feeling about keeping those rocks."

The truck sped off.

The sun passed by the cloud and the sky brighten more, the sun unhidden. Connie skin blistered and she screamed, crouching down. Her skin literally smoking as her skin started to peel.

Kiki gasped. "The sun." Kiki hovered over her to shield some of the sun off of Connie. She could only block some of it. She threw blue dust on Connie and the blisters healed, only to peel and bleed again from the sun."Oh no! Guys, what do we do?!" 

"Here." Buck took his jacket off and put it over her, pulling the hood over her head. That seemed to work.

Kiki got up slowly, keeping a close eye on Connie. "Hm, smart thinking, Buck." Then a beat later. "And that was very nice of you." she quirked an eye at him.

"Buck may be cold blooded, but he's not cold hearted."

Sour Cream ran over, setting Jenny down on the ground. "It looked like it picked up two rocks this time." 

"What does that mean?"

"Don't know." 

"I have a feeling that that's not the last of them." Connie grumbled.

"Oh, vampire girl! Are you okay?"

Connie got up slowly. "Yeah.." she tightened her grip on the jacket. "I just need to go home and get out of the sun." she didn't look up, fearing that the sun would burn her face.

"That sounds like a good idea." she said softly.

They took another look around the area. The robes from the other two and the three masks, one of them ripped in two, laid on the ground. "I have a feeling we should at least keep those." Kiki flew over to pick up the clothing, then flew back to the group. "Okay, ready." she said. Sour Cream picked up Jenny and they started their way to Connie's house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp.. Now I gotta figure out what in the world I'm going to write next.. Maybe I'll finally write our famous little cinnamon bun in the fic. *Shrugs*


	10. Chapter Ten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Four fresh new chapters for y'all :)

"So, what kind of monsters do y'all think they were?" asked Kiki, looking back behind herself for the fifth time.

"Relax, Kiki. I think they're long gone. " Sour Cream gave her a reassuring nod.

She managed a small smile at him before Connie gave her an unsettling answer.

"I have no clue what kind of monsters they are. But whatever they are, they are obviously not friendly and are here on a mission to do something.. But what, I don't know." she growled.

Kiki looked down, Buck's hood blocking all of Connie's face. "What if it was hired to kidnap monsters?"

"But it only came after me." Connie shuddered.

"Maybe that main one thought you were the head honcho and it wanted to take you out first." said Sour Cream.

"Also, you did kinda antagonized her first." said Buck.

"Yeah.." "That's right, yeah.." "Mhmm." they agreed consecutively.

"Or maybe they were going to kidnap us too." Said Buck. "Once that thing threw you in the van, we did bail."

Kiki gasped. "Buck!" she hissed.

"What? We did." he said nonchalantly. "My point is, maybe that thing would've went after us next."

"Also, we did come back." Sour Cream reminded her.

"Yeah.. because it was my idea." she mumbled under her breath.

They continued their walk, walking in silence after that. Kiki grabbed one of the masks from under her arm. She flipped it around. The inside was empty. She flipped it back to look at its face.

"Those mask thingies sure are creepy." Sour Cream was looking at the two small wholes for the eyes.

"Yeah." Kiki agreed. "And I wonder what these diamond patterns mean."

"You think Nanefua would know?" Buck asked.

Kiki took another look at the eerie mask before tucking it underneath of the robes. "Yeah, maybe she knows. If it would be anyone who would know, Gunga would be our best guess."

"I wonder if she knows what these are too." Buck pulled the two objects from his pockets.

"Buck, where the heck did you get those?!" Kiki flapped her wings, her instincts telling her to fly far away from the potentially dangerous objects in his hands. She managed to muster up the courage to stay on the ground, but still kept her distance.

"While you all were out fighting, I used that time to rummaged through the truck and found these."

"Good thing you didn't activate one of them." said Connie.

"Who said he didn't activate it already?!" Kiki freaked out.

Buck shook his head. "I don't think I did."

They stared at the two objects in each hand. Nothing was happening. Buck let a few moments pass before he put the two objects carefully back in each pocket."

"I really hope Gunga knows." said Kiki. "

"How are those two people?" Connie asked her.

"Two people? Oh!" Kiki chuckled. "Nanefua and Gunga are the same person. Nanafua is what some people call her." She jabbed a thumb out at Jenny. "She's our grandma."

"Oh, okay." said Connie.

"Do you think we should tell anyone else? Like, the mayor? What if this is one of those global or international concerns." Sour Cream brought up the topic again.

"Uhg, we don't have to call my dad." Buck scrunched up his face.

"I don't know, Buck. I think that we should be telling the local authorities." said Kiki.

"But my dad?"

"He is the mayor. Look, how about this. We'll only tell Gunga, for now, but eventually, we'll talk to Mayor Dewey once we figure out what to say and once we decipher what those two gadgets are."

Buck still looked uneasy.

"Great! So we'll just do that then."

............

The bag was still holding up in the window. "Well. This is me." said Connie. She opened the door and walked inside, while they stood there on the porch. She went behind the door, hiding from the sunlight and took off Buck's jacket, holding the jacket from slightly behind the edge of the door. "Thanks." she said. "For the jacket."

Buck reached in and grabbed the jacket. "No problem."

They stood there. Connie, in her house and the guadret, on the porch. Neither side wanting to leave the other. They didn't feel comfortable leaving her and she didn't necessarily want to be left alone at that time either. Even though they had just finished fighting those.. things, she couldn't help but miss being around people. It was nice.

And they also came back to save me, knowing that they could've gotten captured as well.

"Well..." she started. "Looks like I've made it back home safely and soundly." she looked at the wounds healing on her arms. "For the most part."

"It was no problem at all." said Kiki.

Silence..

"You three." Connie looked at Jenny. "Uh, four? will be okay?"

Sour Cream nodded. "Yeah, we should be. I strongly doubt we'll be seeing them any time soon."

Silence..

Connie nodded behind the door. "Okay."

"But will you be okay?" he asked.

Connie looked at the bag flapping in the wind. "Yeah, I'll be fine. You don't have to worry about me." she started closing the door. Then she stopped. "Really, you don't." then continued closing the door.

"Getsomerest!" Kiki blurted out just as the door closed. She looked at the two guys. A worried expression on her face.

Sour Cream shook his head. "She doesn't want to be bothered with us." he told her. "Come on, let's get out of here." he shifted Jenny to his other arm and walked down the steps.

She looked at Sour Cream, then at the front door. "But.. she looked so lonely. And she seems so sad.."

"Hey, Steven. Is that really you in there?" he joked, chuckling.

"Come on, you can't tell me that she looks just a tad bit lonely?" she followed Buck down to meet with Sour Cream.

"Sure? I mean, I don't know?" he scrunched up his face. "She is a vampire and all, so don't they all like, I don't know, sulk and stuff?" he looked at his two friends for support.

"Yeah, I think that's just a vampire thing." Buck said to Kiki. "Besides, it's not like she has to be in debt to us, just because we saved her."

"No, I wasn't saying it like that!" she held her hands up. "I just figured, I don't know.." she cut herself off. "Yeah, let's just go."

....

Connie watched them from the black folds of the curtains, walking away. Away from her. It was best that she was left alone, because she loved it. That's definitely what she had thought earlier, up there on her hill. She had grown to love being alone. It was the best!

But then some imbeciles barged right on in her house, taking something extremely personal of hers. Then she kidnapped them. Then she herself got kidnapped and then those said imbeciles came back to save her from.. who knows what. And that mystery stil sent cold shivers down her spine.

And now those said imbeciles are walking away.. What if those things docome back? Maybe she should do something, not because she had grown some kind of likeness to them.. but because it would be the right thing to do. Yup, that's the reason.

Connie pulled a jacket from her closet, the hanger spinning a few times as she ran out the house and down the steps. "Wait!" she shouted from the bottom of the stairs.

The teens turned around, shocked to see her calling for them.

"Vampire girl?" Kiki looked at her.

"Maybe you four would like to stay here-"

Kiki smiled at her.

"You know, only because those things could still be lurking close by."

Sour Cream gave a sly smile and Kiki's smile deepened. Buck gave a thumbs up.

"Hey, don't give me those looks. This is only for today.. Or at least a few hours. Just until everything blows over." she walked back in the house, not daring to look back at their reactions."

Kiki made a giddy laugh. "She's actually inviting us in!" she walked with the group back to the house.

Connie closed the door and took her jacket off. "Okay, I would like for everyone to stay ON the first floor." she walked to the closet. "And assuming that everyone has some kind of organs?" she peeked a glance, quirking an eye at Sour Cream."The facilities are down the hall and please do try and keep it clean. As you see, I take great pride in keeping everything neat" she put emphasis on the letter 't'. "clean and tidy." She hung up the jacket.

She turned to go up the stairs. They were staring at her and she stopped. "What?"

"That's pretty cool. So you like, self heal or something?" Sour Cream pointed at her arms.

She looked at them, completely unphased by the nearly healed skin. Just minor scratches. "Oh, yeah." she said casually. "My body does that." she dropped her arm. "Remember. Stay downstairs." she started walking up. "I'm going to sleep." they heard a door close.

"Hmm. So, now what?" Kiki asked the crew.

.....

Connie folded the washcloth she used for her face over the bar and left the bathroom. She threw her socks at the foot of the bed and plopped down, sighing as the muscles ached as it started to stretch and loosen. "What a day." she said to no one.

She closed her eyes and the events kept playing in her mind. She growled, her eyes still closed. "What the heck do you want with us?.." she whispered to herself.

After replaying the events for the fifth, sixth time in her mind, she managed to fall asleep.

...

"Hey, hey vampire chick." Connie heard a familiar voice.

"Huh? Wha?"she woke up to them all in her room, staring right at her.

"Hey, whoa! Do y'all know ANYTHING about privacy?! What is everyone doing here!" she shrieked.

"Sorry, Vampire girl! But uh.. we're kinda hungry. And theirs only vampire chow in the fridge."

Connie leaned up, groaning, her hand on her head. The grogginess eventually let up. "Wait, but y'all can just leave. You know where to go from here."

"Well.. " Kiki smiled, giving Sour Cream and Buck a look before continuing. "We kinda wanted to invite you."

Connie rubbed her eye. "Why...?"

Kiki gave a little shrug, looking away "You just seem like you really need an outing, is all." then she lunged towards Connie, meaning towards her. Connie threw her hands and her knees up. "Come on. Pleaaaaaase!" Kiki pleaded.

Connie lowered her limbs a bit. "Do I really have to?"

"Come ooooon." she grabbed and tugged at her arm. "Let us show you around Connie. It's been like what? Decades?"

"Decades?" Connie looked right at her. "What do you mean?"

Kiki choked, taking a half second, uneasy look at Sour Cream and Buck. "Oh! Uh-Er, that's just a figure of speech! It's what? Like, decades since you've had fun." Kiki bit her lip. Yeah, that wasn't any better.. What a morbid joke that I didn't mean to make..

"Yeah, it has been awhile actually." Connie admitted, not realizing anything.

Kiki gave a mental sigh of relief and Sour Cream and Buck sighed their mental reliefs as well, putting on nervous smiles.

"So." Connie slid at the end of the bed and got up. "What do you have in mind?"

Kiki recovered, going with a casual demeanor. "Fish.Stew..Pizza!" she exclaimed.

Connie twisted her face. "Um.. interesting name.. They don'tjust sell cooked meats, do they?"

Kiki shook her head. "Neh. They serve uncooked foods for you vampires andwerewolves and other creepy creatures and creepy crawlies that eat raw food."

"That's a relief.. I don't think I would've been able to stomach that mess." Connie walked towards the windowm Very little light shone between the blinds. She bent one of them to look outside. The sun was hiding behind the trees in the distance. She looked back at them. "We can leave in about 20 minutes." she told them.

"Yay!" Kiki squealed. "Vampire girl, you are SO gonna love this place!"

"Maybe." then Connie finally realized what she and the others had been calling her. "And it's Connie, by the way." Not trying to sound too defensive. But she did anyway.

"Oh!" she gave her a nervous, sorry smile. "Sorry, Connie." she corrected.

They followed her downstairs.

"So Buck, Sour Cream. Know what you two are getting already?" Kiki asked, fluttering off the third step and landing on the floor, facing them.

"What I got two weeks ago. Charred rock soup with baked chicken bits." he nodded.

"Buck is getting his usual. Snakghetti."

"Buck, for the ten thousandth time. That name is NOT going to catch on. It's just snakes instead of noodles. Snakghetti just.. sounds weird."

Buck snorted. "Says you. It's gonna catch on eventually."

"And what about you, Connie?"

Connie was too focused on the sun setting to realize she was asked a question.

"Connie?"

She pulled back from the blind. "Huh?" she looked at Kiki.

"Do you know what you're going to get?" she tried to add her into the conversation.

"Not, really." Connie narrowed her eyes in thought. "I'm not that picky of an eater when it comes to raw food. I'll just look at the menu when I get there."

They left ten minutes, Sour Cream picking up Jenny from in front of the table, revealing a photo album and some newspaper clippings on the table.


	11. Chapter 11

.....

"Hey, I wonder if Stevie-poo is going to be there." Kiki was circling around them, doing breaststrokes as she flew lazily on her back around the group.

"Knowing Steven, yeah, he's definitely there." said Sour Cream.

"Buck needs a word with him. He buried my favorite pair of glasses somewhere." he shook his head. "He has yet to dig it back up."

"We warned you not to leave loose belongings where he can easily see them." A beat later ."Or sniff them out. It's your loss, Bucky."

Buck scoffed. "That's Jenny's nickname for me.. Anyway, he needs to find them. I'm suppose to be going to somewhere fancy and those glasses are the only ones that matches with my slacks."

"Oooooo." Kiki flipped over and flew towards Buck. "Somewhere fancy with the Mrs?" Kiki teased, flying at eye level beside him.

Buck's expression remained neutral behind his glasses, but the apparent blush on his face gave him away.

Kiki cackled. "Anyway, Buck. All you have to do is just ask him about it."

"I did. Like four times already."

"You know how easily that boy gets distracted. You just have to pull him aside and ask him sternly about it. I had to do that when he buried my favorite comb. And you have to tell him to look for it now not later. Unless you want him to get distracted again and forget."

Buck nodded. "I'll try that."

"Just.. don't go too hard on him. You don't want to scare him away and have him hide under a table for the next few hours." she cut her eye at Sour Cream.

"Whaaaat? It was a joke. Didn't think bringing the vacuum in was going to freak him out."

"It wasn't funny." said Kiki

"It was a little funny." said Buck.

Kiki rolled her eyes. "Whatever. You two and my sister can be pretty mean sometimes, pranking on poor Steven." she landed back down by Sour Cream.

Connie finally cut in. "Who is this Steven person?"

"Oh, he's-" Sour Cream nudged Kiki, smiling. He nodded towards Connie. Kiki looked confused for a few moments, then she gave him a knowing smile. "Yeah, he's this adorable little cinnamon roll who lives south of Beach City with his parents. He's kind, he's thoughtful, he's sweet.. And did I mention how adorable he is?" she gave her a side smile.

Connie raised an eyebrow at her. "Oookay?"

Kiki and Sour Cream exchanged glances and the latter shrugged. Kiki turned back to Connie. "Yeah, I think you're gonna really like him. Just, don't be startled by his overly energetic way with how he greets newcomers." she warned.

"What? What do you mean by that?"

"He likes to-"

"Hey, is that Ronaldo sleeping?" Sour Cream cut her off.

They looked straight ahead. A figure hunched over in front of a tree stump. It was snoring.

"Oh boy.. I think it is. Come on, let's sneak on by before he- Sour Cream, get back here!" she hissed, being careful not to raise her voice as loud.

Sour Cream ran towards the sleeping Ronaldo. Glasses ascew, slobber on his face and a piece of cow ear hanging from his mouth. Crumbs clung to his sweaty shirt.

Sour Cream crept up on him and took a deep breath. "RONALDO!!"

"AAHH!!!" The piece of chicken fell out of his mouth.

Sour Cream burst into laughter.

"Huh!? WHAT!!... Oh.." he wiped the drool off of his face with the back of his hand and looked at disgusted, wiping the back of his hand on his shirt. He straightened the glasses back on his face. "Why isn't it Sour Cream. Happy to see you here." his voice grumbling with sarcasm. He leaned forward, looking around Sour Cream. "And it looks like you brought your posse as usual.. Hey! It's you again!" he got up. "You totally missed what happened RIGHT after you left!" his demeanor changed immediately, sounding giddy.

Connie wanted to play coy. "Missed what?"

"A flying handship!" he shouted enthusiastically.

Everyone except for Connie started laughing. Kiki covered her mouth, trying to stifle hers.

"Yes, you heard me correct!" he puffed out his chest. "A. Giant. Green. Handship!""

"Ronaldo, did you bump your head on something again?" Kiki asked in between her chuckles.

"NOT this time!" He smiled sinisterly. "I SAW it with my OWN two eyes!"

"Did you see anyone get in it?" Buck asked.

"No! I just seen it FLYING off! It just.. FLEEWW overhead!" He made a gooseneck gesture with his hand at the wrist and waved his hand in an arc over his head.

This elicited more laughter from the teens at Ronaldo's overly dramatic gestures and movements.

"That just sounds like some kind of SyFy movie that you and Pee Dee are always watching." Kiki said. "It was probably just some kind of spice dream. Did you eat something spicy?"

Ronaldo looked down at the half a cow ear by his foot. It was doused in spices. He looked up at the group, looking defeated. Then he finally opened his mouth to say something.

"Yeah, see ya, Raynoldo."

"But, but it really was real! I seen every cut and cuticle on that thing!" he shouted.

"See yaaa~" Kiki waved her hand as the group started walking away. Connie hesitated before trudging along with the group. She watched Ronaldo's sad, puppy dog expression.

"Poor guy is always yapping about space stuff." Kiki said. "Spaceships, sapient space rocks.."

"Sneaple." Sour Cream added with a chuckle.

"Yeah, he should just give it a rest already."

Connie continued to watch Ronaldo's sad expression. Then he started sniffing the air. His expression now curious.

"There's no such thing as aliens." Connie heard Buck say to the group.

"And yet, he continues to do stuff like this." said Kiki.

Connie saw Ronaldo start sniffing the ground, he sniff between two rocks and he flung his self back, a crab having clamped on to his nose. He started shaking his face, the crab still holding on.

"Yeah, how sad." said Sour Cream.

Ronaldo pulled on the creature until it let go. He growled, throwing the crab.

What if he really did see a handship..

"Hey, Connie. Don't worry about him." Connie looked back at Kiki. "Yeah, he's always doing stuff like that. No need to worry about him."

"Yeah, he's just lame like that." said Sour Cream.


	12. Chapter 12

...

The building was wedged in between two other eateries. A vegan and a vegetarian restaurant. The door was propped open by a doorstopper. So many smells wafted through the air from the various restaurants and Connie scrunched up her nose.

"Ah, too many scents at once, huh?" Kiki looked at Connie.

Connie scrunched up her face even more, nodding. "I'm just not used to so many different smells at once."

"Yeah, well it's a good thing you're not a warewolf. You would probably be running for the hills by now." Kiki laughed. "Well, you should be used to it in no time."

"How long did it take for you to get used to it?"

"Oh, all of us are immune to it. We don't have an amazing sense of smell like vampires and werewolves do."

Connie deflated. "Of course.."

"So! Connie, are ya ready to enter the most fanciest restaurant ever?!"

"I thought that JJ and bros raw & cooked restaurant down the street was the fanciest." Sour Cream joked.

Kiki shot him a glare.

"Hey! Joking, joking." he chuckled.

Kiki turned back to Connie. "Believe me, Connie. This restaurant is SO much better than those preppy, snooty ones with bland, high priced food. Come on."

Kiki gestured for Connie to come with her.

....

It was extremely busy and every table was filled with people. Those who could fly or levitate was floating alongside their friends at the table.

"Wow. It's jam packed in here." Connie looked around. She felt uneasy.

Kiki looked around before waving to someone that Connie couldn't see, someone having stepped in front of her line of sight. "Yeah, that's how this place gets on Taco Supreme Tuesdays. Come on, let's go to the front." she grabbed Connie's arm, then quickly let go. "Oh! Your wounds!" she looked at Connie's healed arms. "Oh.. right." she laughed at herself. She grabbed Connie's wrist again and pulled her through the groups of people. They finally got to the front. "Hey Pee Dee~~~!

"H-Hey, Kiki." the pre teen blushed.

"How's my favorite guy doing today?" she cooed.

The boy rubbed his neck. "Heheh, favorite guy.." his blushed deepened. "I'm uh.. doing pretty well." he mumbled, not looking directly at her.

"That's great to hear." she smiled. "So, where's pops? We gotta situation on our hands." she pointed at her sister. Sour Cream set her down on the counter.

Pee Dee looked at Jenny. "Again?" he whined. He looked at Buck. Buck shrugged. Then pointed at his glasses.

Pee Dee sighed. "You know, he's going to start charging you guys.." he exited through two swinging doors.

"Thanks Pee Dee!" shouted Kiki. She turned to the group. "Awwwee, isn't he just adorable?" she cooed.

"You think everyone is adorable." said Sour Cream.

"What? I SO do not. I just think he and Steven are two adorable little monsters." she said. Then she looked around. "Where is he, anyway? Figured he would've smelled us by now and would've ran right into u-Ahck!!" a young boy had jumped on her back. She turned around and was met with someone licking her face. "Bleck! Bleck! Bleck!" Kiki tried to turn his face away. "Grosss, Steven!"

He laughed and gave her his famous 1,000 watt smile. "Found you, Kiki!" he shouted He got off her so she could sit up.

"Plth,plth,pkth." she spat out. "Yes. You did."

Buck handed her some napkins from the counter and she wiped her face.

Steven jumped to his feet. "Hey Buck, Sour Cream." he greeted them.

Pee Dee came back from the backroom. "Hey Pee Dee again!" Steven yelled out, waving at him frantically. Pee Dee gave him a single wave and a smile before walking back to the cash register to start taking orders again.

Steven's eyes followed him over to the register until he saw someone who he hadn't seen before. He looked back at Connie, who had looked at him from the corner of her eye, before looking away. "Hey, stranger!" she didn't see him smiling or waving at her. His smile dropped a bit and he looked a bit confused.

"Sorry, Steven. She's a tad bit shy." said Kiki finally getting up from her sitting position on the floor.

"Come on, Connie. Meet Steven. He won't bite!" then Kiki raised an eyebrow at Steven. "..Right?" she was unsure.

Steven shook his head, raising his hands in a placating manner. He gave her a nervous smile.

"See. He's nice." said Kiki.

Connie sighed. She was in fact happy she was finally with people, but it was only with the four or three as of right now, she was with. Meeting someone new was a bit overwhelming. She was already very uncomfortable with being around SO many people at the restaurant. She went from just herself to four people, to a full crowd of people in a span of twenty four hours and she now had to officially meet another person who apparently seemed overzealous and bubbly and happy-go-lucky and childish and puppy-like and- she sighed, turning around so she can hurry and get 'being acquainted' over with. The teen looked at her just as she turned to look at him.

There was a flash of purple light in front of her, that quickly went away in a blink of an eye.. Or maybe she had imagined the light? The room turned dull, but the adorable figure in front of her was glowing bright. He looked shocked, just as much as her, his mouth slightly open. Then he collapsed to his knees, right by Kiki, his stare never leaving Connie's beautiful face. So many peaceful, happy images with her went through his mind.

Kiki looked at Sour Cream and Buck, pointing at the two teens. She mouthed out "What's going on?" The two guys shrugged, looking more confused than ever.

Steven finally blinked and he got up slowly, the slightly shocked look still on his face. Connie sat there, still looking at him. The room was muffled, yet his voice was close and clear as day and every syllable of every word he said struck every cord of her every being. "Hey, Connie." he waved at her, with the most handsome smile she had ever seen. Ever. The glow was still coming from him and she was wondering if she was imagining that as well. The light slowly started to fade as the incoherent chatter started to fill her ears again as he slowly approached her.

"..Hi." was all she could say. She could barely breath. He was standing right in front of her. They continued staring at each other.

"Should we.. do something?" Kiki asked the guys. "Did we like... Cross some ancient, forbidden line between vampires and werewolves?"

"I have nooo clue.. But if they start tearing at each other, we gotta break it up."

The trio started inching towards the two teens. "..u have very pretty eyes." they heard Steven say. He was blushing and his voice was above his normal pitch. His voice cracking at the end. Connie chuckled both at the compliment and his voice cracking. It was cute.

"Oh, wait!" Kiki held her arms out, stopping them. "She just laughed.. Maybe they aren't going to tear each other to shreds after all."

"Umm.. you have very nice hair." Connie blushed.

"Oh yeah?" he grinned, working an eyebrow.

Connie nodded.

"Theeeeen, you can have it." he shook his head in front of her, laughing away.

His curly brown hair swished and floofed in front of Connie's face and she turned away, her hands up to block some of his hair. She couldn't stop laughing.

Steven eventually stopped and he continued to look at her, smiling at her. Their fits of laughter began to die down as they continued to stare at each other.

It was nice. She had a guess as to what had happened just then. What had happened to her or to them just then. She was told stories about this, but she had been unsure if it was true or not.. Maybe this was it? She felt something different in her heart. An unfamiliar feeling she couldn't quit put into words, but she definitely felt at peace and happy. She leaned in closer to Steven, suddenly wanting to be closer to him and he leaned in as well. Yes, this really was nice. She was relishing in the moment with just the two of them. The moments lingered on and she leaned in a bit more. She smiled. He leaned in more and gave her an even bigger smile. Just them two together. He licked his lips and parted them, slowly and...Started licking her face.

"MMMH!"Connie was trying to push him away. _Yeah, moment gone.._

"No! Steven, no kisses!" Kiki said sternly, running over to him. She pulled him by his shoulders. He managed to steal a few more "kisses" before he let Kiki pull him away.

Connie spat out, wiping her face with her hands. She gave a gutteral sigh, narrowing her eyes at a completely oblivious Steven. His tongue was still out, panting happily.

"Yeah....Sorry, Connie. He.. tends to do that.." Kiki said, still holding on to the boy.

Buck handed Connie some napkins from the counter and she started wiping her face off. She folded and stuffed the dirty tissue in her pant pocket. She continued to narrow her eyes at that darn cute boy.. She tried to continue her anger, but it was quickly dissipating, the longer she kept staring at that sweet, likeable face of his.

"Yeah, you could've just stopped at the hair shaking part." she tried to sound angry, but it sounded strained and unconvincing.

"But EVERYONE loves kisses!" was his squeaky whined rebuttal.

She actually had a feeling to smile at that, but she managed to keep an uninterested face. "Yeah, you can't speak for everyone."

He stopped panting, frowning.

"Aright, Steven. You already got acquainted with her, time to leave her alone and give her some space." she let go of him.

He lowered his head, frowning more. "But I don't want to leave her alone.. It's just something about her."

Connie tilted her head, shooting him an inquisitive look.

"Ooookay? Yeah, that doesn't sound creepy at all." said Kiki, gently pushing him away from Connie.

"Okay, you guys. I managed to find a bit more of the stuff all the way in the back." Mr. Fryman was walking towards Jenny.

"Yay!" Kiki stopped pushing Steven and flutter jumped into the air. She landed back down and ran to meet the manager and her sister at the counter.

Mr. Fryman opened the small vile and poured the rest of the contents in his hand. He blew the dust into Jenny's face and they waited. A few seconds later, the cement started to crack and crumble everywhere and in a way similar to glass shattering, the cement shattered altogether, falling on the floor. "..done this! You're so gonna get it!" her eyes were still closed in anger. She opened them. "Huh?" she looked around. "Oh.." She looked at Mr. Fryman, still in her crouching pose. "Um.. thank you, again, for uh, yeah.." she chuckled nervously. "That's uh, that was free, right?"

"Yes. It was free. Again." He popped the cap back on the empty bottle. "Try to not let this happen again, okay? I won't be getting this stuff." he waved the tiny bottle in his hand. "Until another two weeks. And I barely get enough in shipment as it is." he said.

"Uh, yeah! Sir yes sir!"

"Hm." he nodded. "And another thing."

"What's that?"

"Can you get off the counter please? That's very unhygienic."

"Oh! Yeah, sure!.. Sorry." she slid off the counter and into the bolted down swivel seat.

"Thank you." he turned to the rest of the group. "Now, did you all come here just for that or did you also want to order something?" he gave them a knowing look.

"We're definitely here to order something." Sour Cream gave him a thumbs up.

"Great! So, what can I get everyone?" he pulled a small notepad from his pocket.

"Wait.. you're doing the serving tonight?" asked Jenny.

He groaned. "Yeah, Kevin called out again, so I had to come in to work."

"Mm, that sucks." said Buck, who had taken a seat right by Jenny.

"Yeah, well, I'll talk to him about that later. So, what can I get everyone?"


	13. Chapter 13

....

After everyone ordered, Mr. Fryman was nice enough to offer them the employee lounge to eat in.

The food only took 25 minutes to come to their "reserved" table in the back.

"The fact that we each ordered food that would each take certain amount of time to cook and take different methods to make, I'm kinda surprised that the food got here so quickly." Connie took a few sips of her drink. Chicken blood. She picked up her fork and knife and started cutting the raw steak.

"Psshht, you think this is cool? This is NOTHING compared to what this restaurant has done before. They're all experts in knowing exactly which food to make first and to make it a certain way that's both with quality and quantity." said Kiki. She took a bite of her garden salad.

"Not bad." Connie nodded. "Not bad at all. So, uh-" her attention went towards the soft laughter beside her and she took a quick glance at Jenny twirling the snake noodles on her fork and feeding them to Buck. He ate off the fork and she took a napkin and dabbed at his mouth, chuckling. She quickly turned her attention back to Kiki. "So, uh." she started again. "Do y'all always come here ooor?"

"Yeah, pretty much." Kiki picked up a red shaker and sprinkled something over top of her food. She set it back down by Jenny, the latter picking up the shaker and sprinkling it over top of her own food without looking, her eyes staring lovingly at Buck who was in the middle of slurping his noodles. She put the bottle back down and laid her chin back on her knuckles.

"All of us are broke.. Well, except for Buck." Kiki pointed a thumb at him. He twirled some more snake noodles and took a huge bite from his fork. Jenny was still staring dreamily at him. Without looking, she picked up her fork and stabbed a few lettuce pieces and took one bite off of her fork. "So we can't go to those hissiditty restaurants." Kiki continued. "And even if we did have the money, we wouldn't dare go to those kind of places anyway. Monsters thinking that they're all that and a bag of chips." she rolled her eyes and took an angry bite from her fork. She put a hand over her mouth. "Itsch ridjucloush!" she said as she was chewing her food. A piece of a beetle head fell from her mouth. She stabbed it with her fork and stabbed a few other leaves and took another angry bite.

Sour Cream snorted. "Also her best friend works there."

Kiki choked on her food. She swallowed and cleared her throat. "She is NOT my best friend! She's not a friend at all! Uhg, she thinks that she's all that!"

Sour Cream tried to hold in his laugh as he picked up his bowl to down the rest of his soup. He snort, holding it in, then he began laughing again, spitting some of the soup out.

"Ew, Sour Cream!" Jenny and Kiki squealed.

He was still laughing, wiping off his chin.

Steven also found it funny, laughing at Sour Cream's spit take.

Buck shook his head. "Not cool, dude."

Connie took a delicate bite off her fork, watching the whole interaction. This was different. It was a good different. Even though she wasn't thoroughly intertwined with the group, more like a spectator with her own commentary here and there, she was still really enjoying herself. She brought another piece of steak to her mouth and took it clean off with one of her fangs. Steven saw it.

He laughed. "Hey, your fang kinda works like a spit."

"Like.. spit?" Connie made a disgusted face.

"Huh? Oh!" he laughed some more. "No, a spit. One of those rod thingies you use to roast food on. You stab the food through the rod and you rotate it, as it cooks."

"Ahh, so you use it for cooking." she gave an 'Ahha' kind of knod. "Oh, I get it now.. Yeah, I never used one." she started cutting up more pieces of her steak. "Don't cook." she said plainly, cutting up the steak as if to emphasize that it is in fact, raw.

"Yeah, I don't either. But I've seen Lars cook stuff like that ALL the time."

"I STILL can't believe you like him, Steven. He's such a troll! Both literally and figuratively." said Jenny.

"He's not that bad."

"Steven, he picks on you!" said Kiki.

"He's just misunderstood!" Steven whined.

Well he better not pick with you while I'm right there." Jenny picked up her nector drink and drunk some of it.

"Yeah, uh.. Anyway." Steven chuckled nervously. "That's what you reminded me of. That's pretty cool." he smiled. "I wonder if I can do it.. Your fangs are longer than mine though.. I think?" he opened his mouth and in a split second he grew out his fangs and dove face first onto his plate, biting into his steak. Blood splattered everywhere.

"Oh! Steven! You're getting blood EVERYWHERE!" Jenny shrieked. She, Kiki, Sour Cream and Buck covered their face.

A spec of blood flew on Connie's cheek and she wiped it off with her finger and tasted it. "Hm, not bad."

They looked at her.

Steven lifted his head up. "Ohn, showwey." he said, with his mouth open. He looked down and noticed that he was holding up his half a steak with his two canines. "Whaaaa?! I djidj itj!!" he cheered. Blood dropped from the steak.

"Okay, Steven.. Not judging but uh.. Can you not eat your food like that? Some of us are still trying hard not to fall out over here, with all this blood at the table." said Jenny.

Steven nodded. "Mhm. ohckay." he opened his mouth as wide as he can and started chewing on the half a steak, his cheeks huge on each side as he tried to chew it all.

Kiki shook her head and couldn't help but laugh at his attempt. She looked at Connie. "Can't live with him, can't live without him. Isn't that right, Connie?" she was giving her a smug look. Connie had been staring at Steven. She looked away and at Kiki. "Umm.." she started blushing again. And Kiki giggled.

Jenny placed her utensils on the empty plate in front of her. "So, any plans for tomorrow?" she asked the group.

"No." "Nope." Sour Cream and Jenny said over one another.

Steven swallowed the last few chews of his steak. "Maybe hang out with Pee Dee."

Both Connie and Buck shrugged.

"Ooooo, then maybe we can plan something fun to do." she suggested.

"But what about." Connie looked at Steven. "Uh, the..Rock situation?"

A sudden realization came over the group.

"Oof.. How could I had forgotten about that?" Sour Cream berated himself.

"Wait, you like to collect rocks too?" Steven asked. "Well." Steven scratched his cheek. "More like, burry them, but it's still roughly the same thing."

Connie didn't answer him, her attention on the situation at hand.

"Yeah, we did say that we were going to see Gunga." said Kiki. Jenny looked at her confused and Kiki waved her off with a look of "I'll explain it all to you later". She continued. "But tomorrow's Monday and she's going to be at her volleyball work out just about all day, so we have no choice but to bump the visit back." Kiki's voice apologetic.

"Mm.. okay." Connie mumbled.

"Don't worry, Connie. We'll go there first thing in the morning.

_MORNING?!?!_ Connie's eyes went wide.

"Oh, right. Yeah, well you'll just have to put on your extra layers, because that's the best time to visit her." said Kiki.

Connie inwardly groaned.

"Wow, so that's true?" asked Steven.

Everyone looked at him.

"Like, with vampires and sunlight? You really can't go out in the daytime?!" a huge worried expression was plastered on his face.

Connie nodded solemnly. "You.. get used to it, I guess."

He hung his head down. "And I had a lot of fun stuff in mind that we could do on the beach." he grumbled.

Connie couldn't believe that his sad reaction got to her. "I mean, it's not like I can't go outside _at_ all. Like Kiki said, I just have to layer up."

Steven looked up, a hopeful expression on his face. "So we could still have our fun in the sun!?" he cheesed.

Connie fidgeted. "Mmm.. more or less..?" she didn't sound quite sure, but the answer worked for Steven who was hooting with joy. "Whoo hoo!!"

"So. Since we have one extra day to relax, how's about we have just a tad bit of fun, to help us unwind?" Jenny smiled mischievously.

"And nothing." Kiki looked at Jenny. "That would get us in trouble."

Jenny scoffed, rolling her eyes.

"How about Funland?" Steven suggested.

The group thought about it for a split second before agreeing with him. "Yeah, I can dig it." said Jenny.

"It's been awhile since Buck went on a drop coaster."

"Yeah and I kinda miss scaring those tourists with my moving statue prank." said Sour Cream.

"And I can go for some carnival food!" said Kiki. "Okay! Then that settles it. We'll go to Fuland!"

"I've never been to this place.." said Connie.

"Really!? Are you kidding me?! The amusement park opened up in." she stopped herself, realizing something before nabbing a quick glance at Sour Cream and Buck. "Uh,er, actually, that's understandable. It's not that well known."

"What are you talking about? Of course it is!" Steven jabbered.

"Neh, not when you're from another city like Connie. Funland is only known to the people of Beach City."

"But Jeff and Pee Dee said they knew about it before they moved here."

"I don't know, Steven." she tried not to act agitated. It wasn't like he knew what she was trying to do. "Anyway. Connie, you're going to love this place! You're gonna have SO much fun!" she clasped her hands.

"Mmm.. If you say so.." said Connie.

"Great! So, how are we going to do this? All of us need to go back home to freshen up and change. So, should we pick a time to meet back up here?"

"It doesn't really matter to me." said Steven.

"As long as I get enough rest, I'm good." said Sour Cream.

"I think the park doesn't start getting fun until after 6p.m." said Jenny.

"Okay, so we meet up say, quarter pass 6?" Kiki looked at the group.

They all agreed to the time.

"Well." Connie began. "I might as well start walking back now, if I want to get some rest."

"Do you need one of us to walk you back?" Sour Cream asked.

"No, no I'm fine. I can easily just run all the way home. And the sun doesn't come up until another couple of hours." she got up. "So I should definitely be fine."

The group still looked a bit worried and she couldn't blame them. She scooted her chair in. "Here at 6:15, right? I'll be there." she nodded to them. "And thanks for the meal."

Everyone said their goodbye's and see you later's to Connie, except for Steven. He got up. "You really don't need anyone to walk you home?"

"Yes, Steven." she may had said it a bit too sternly. He winced slightly. "I'll be fine." she tried to say it softly.

"Oh.. Okay then.." he hung his arms behind his back.

.........

As she ran back to her house, she couldn't help but replace the events from earlier with the event that happened just a mere hour ago. She actually had so much fun with the group.

And she couldn't help thinking about that adorable little werewolf and his poofy, dark brown hair.

She made it home and turned the doorknob, entering the house with a smile on her face. Something that she hadn't done in decades.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fewf! Almost didn't post anything within a month! :0  
But that's okay because here are FIVE new chapters! Yay! :D

Connie closed the door and ran up the steps, skipping every other step along the way until she got to the top. She opened her bedroom door and threw her closet open, searching along the few _nice_ clothes she had. With each moment passing, her smile started to diminish into a thin line, then to a slight hopeless frown. "What am I going to wear?" she asked herself.

The red dress was a bit too .. spicy for her taste.. Perhaps to a fancy restaurant, yes, but to a carnival? No.. Then there was a nice pink skirt with white tulips on them. That was cute and that would work, though apart of Connie's mind was just so used to wearing that flower skirt in the spring, wearing it for the first time in the dead of autumn just didn't feel right to her.. Then there was the lime green dress. That was cute as well. But perhaps just a tad bit too bright and bouncy for her liking. And the red roses looked just a tad bit too much on the dress as well. Though if it was a picture, she would hang it up. It just had this aura, this look of 'renewal', 'life', 'happiness'. She looked at the top shelf, completely bypassing the old white box on the shelf to a few hats bunched up in a corner. Baseball caps from her times at the stadium, a few beanie hats that now had lost their elastic, some of the yarn unravelled in certain spots and a sombrero from that one time she and her family went to Cozumel for vacation. None of the hats would do.

She looked down at the floor. A few black boots, one of them platforms. A few pairs of completely worn out tennis shoes, a left shoe from one of the pairs she nicknamed Gabby because whenever she walked, it always seemed to had something to say to her. She picked it up, the top flapped open, away from the bottom of the shoe. "Nope, you're definitely not going to do. Sorry." She placed the shoe back with its partner and continued scanning the row of shoes. Two white flats and one red one. Those could do. She took a few steps back to look at the whole closet. "Hmmm.."

A few moments later and she decided to just come back to it. According to the clock on the wall, she had roughly twelve hours before she would have to leave. She would figure out what to wear before then. 

She closed the closet door and went to the bathroom to wash her hands and her face. Something she usually does after coming in the house, but with the excitement and being so antsy, she'd forgotten to do that. She dried her face off and left the bathroom. She fell back and sunk into the comforter. She wondered how Funland was going to be. Were there certain etiquettes? Then she wondered what she was going to do there. From the sounds of it, she wouldn't be a fan of drop coasters like Buck and she didn't have an interest in scaring people like Sour Cream.

_I wonder what Steven is into?_ and just then she felt her face heat up just bringing up his name. _I wonder what he's doing now?_ and a part of her, JUST a part of her kinda, maybe sort of, just a smidge.. missed him already, though it'd only been a couple of hours since she last saw him. She shook her head, refocusing on the carnival and what she would like to do. Something involving water? She did like swimming. Wait, does Funland have a swimming pool or any water rides? She decided to think of something else. What about food? She thought about trying the various snacks. Maybe the snacks are vampire friendly. She hoped so.

Speaking of snacks, she was getting pretty parched (As what usually happens when she eats snacks.) She left the room and made it downstairs.

Connie made her way down the steps and turned, immediately saw the photo album our and the newspaper clippings. She squinted her eyes in confusion for just a split second before immediately realizing what they were. She felt just the slightest tinge of dread hit her stomach. 

She walked towards the table, her boots making a metal clonk on the bare wooden floor. She knelt down beside the memories and turned one of the clippings to make it face towards her and slid it forward with two fingers. _So this was what they were doing while I was sleep, huh?_ She thought to herself. Suddenly Kiki's careful wording those few times made sense. She sighed. _Great._

She read the bold print at the top of the clipping. **No survivors.** Then she looked at the picture of the charred rubble that was once a building..

If this had been 50 years ago, maybe even 30 years ago, the title alone would've made her break down.. but now, she was okay. Of course that hint of sadness in her gut was still there, but overall, she was okay. She was finally at that acceptance stage.

She opened the photo album to the first page to take just a quick peak at a family photo of her and her parents in front of the house. Snow coated the ground, the porch and the names trees around them. That picture used to set her off as well, but now, it was just bittersweet memories.

She liked to think that they were in a better place. She was also thinking that, knowing them, that they would want her to continue on living her life, instead of being a hermit and moping around and living in the past, being emotionless, feeling empty. Something that she felt and something that was doing for the last 52 years of her life, since their death.. However, inversely, today had been the exact opposite. She was actually hanging out with other people, she was happy, she was living in the present, in the _moment,_ she had a wave of warm emotions and even experienced a new, funny emotion she never felt before and she simply felt full of life and at peace.

She wiped at a corner of her eye. She had a feeling that they would've perfered her to have days such as last night and that they would rather want for her to have more days like that night. They would want her to be happy. A single tear fell on the plastic skip of the photo album and she wiped her cheek off. She needed a turning point and this was it. She'd cherished the old memories she had with her parents. She still did and she figured she always will, but now it was time for her to start living again and to start making new memories. She knew she would always have that small touch of sadness from nostalgia, from bittersweet memories, but she had this new sense of confidence , this new surge of strength, of happiness, of hope.

A few more tears started to trail down her face. She misses them. She loves them. And now she had met a few more people whom she would grow to love as well. It was a beautiful moment just then, meeting at that fine line between who she was before and who she would become.

"Love you mom. Love you dad." she sniffed and wiped another tear that managed to slide down her cheek. She shuffled the clippings together, tucked them in the photo album and closed it. Then she got up, placed the album inside of the cabinet by the couch and went back upstairs, going straight for the closet. She opened the doors wide open and looked at the clothes now in a different perspective. She skimmed the dresses and pulled the green one out. It seemed fitting for how she was feeling now. She laid it on the bed and went back to the closet.

She looked at the top shelf at the white box with caked up dust on it. She jumped up and grabbed it and made her way back to the bed. She opened the top to reveal a used, but still pristine garment. She lifted it out the box and held it, taking in the familiar scent that wafted up her nose. She sighed, a slight curvature of her lips in a very small smile. _I think I'll wear my mom's favorite sun hat for this evening._


	15. Chapter Fifteen

After getting some much needed rest, taking a quick shower and nabbing the last few chicken gizzards that was left to thaw out in the fridge, she was now in the middle of putting her mom's sun hat on her head _just_ right. Not too far back, but it can't be too far at the front either. She took the hat back off and put it back on, then twist it a bit to the right, then to the left, then to the right again. She watched the hat turn side to side in the mirror. _Almost got it_.

She leaned forward, tongue out and touching a fang, in concentration, looking at the hat twisting and turning in the mirror. Then with a gentle motion, she tugged the hat just ever so slightly up. She let go of a breath she didn't realize she was holding and took a couple steps back to look at the final product. Her green dress fell nicely just a few inches off the floor and the roses weren't that distracting now that she actually had the dress on. And the red belt- that she'd found hanging underneath of the hanger inside of the dress- was actually just what the dress needed. And the hat was juuuuuust right. 

She smiled, all teeth_ and fangs_ as she twirled around in front of the mirror. The floating dress twirled and the hat floated and bobbed along in the reflection. _Nicely done_. She twirled over to the closet and grabbed the red flats before sliding down the banister to the front door. She put her shoes on and opened the door. The crisp fall air blew her long brown locks. She breathed in the faint scent of the ocean and giggled to herself. "This is going to be a good day." 

.....

By the time Connie got there, it was already 6:25. Ten minutes late. Maybe she shouldn't had stopped to smell the flowers in the field that she'd pass..but everything just seemed so much brighter and livelier and more sweet smelling. It was like seeing the world a new. 

She almost felt bad for being late, but Sour Cream was the only one that was there. So eh, she didn't mind. Buck, Jenny and Kiki weren't there yet and neither was her cutie Steven. 

"Hey." Connie waved to Sour Cream before taking a seat on the opposite side of him.

" 'Sup." he gave her a head nod and continued tipping his chair back, balancing it on two back legs. "Hm, you look nice today."

"Oh, thanks." She wanted to say something more, but she was still getting used to the whole "talking to people" thing.

He gave her a smirk. "Trying to look good for someone?" he teased.

"What! No, that's not it at all! I just uh, wanted uh." she tried to think of a reason.

He chuckled. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding." he threw his hands up. 

"Oh..Heh." she chuckled nervously.. And she could feel her cheeks heating up. She kept her head down until she heard a thumb in the back. She looked up to see Steven putting his leg back down from kicking the two doors open. Her unbeating heart skipped a beat. _So he_ was_ here!_ Okay _now_ she was feeling bad about being fifteen minutes late. Yeah, she definitely shouldn't had stopped to smell those flowers..

Steven was holding five small boxes in his hands. She could only see the brown curls of his hair as he cautiously walked towards where he knew was the counter. 

He placed the boxes on the counter. "It still sucks that you have to work today." he said as Peedee opened the doors behind him. He was carrying a stack of clean brown trays. He placed them on the back counter. "Eh, it's not your fault, Steven. We're just, under staff is all." he placed his elbows on top of the trays, as he laid his head on his hands. "Though.. It would've been nice to actually have some fun for once." his voice cracked. He sighed. "Maybe next time." 

"What if I helped you out with this stuff?" Steven pointed at the boxes. "Four hands are better than two, after all. Why, we'll be done with all of this in NO ti-"

"That's not how it works, Steven. I would still need someone to cover the overnight shift.. Kevin called out again, so I'm stuck with his shift." 

"Oh, whaaaaaat?" Steven whined. "Kevin again? Why doesn't your dad just talk to him?" Steven opened one of the boxes and grabbed a handful of spoons out. He started stocking them up in their container on the counter.

Peedee turned around. "He did! Like, multiple times!" He walked over to the front of the counter and opened another box. "But, he continues to keep doing it." he took out a stack of napkins out of the box and popped open two containers beiside him and started stuffing the napkins inside.

"That guy really gets under my skin."Steven growled out. He closed the box and opened another one.

"Heh, you know I think he's the only one that you _don't_ like, Steven. Now that's saying something about him." Peedee closed the containers and picked them up, carrying them towards the condiment stand. He finally noticed Connie sitting across the room. "Oh! Hey, Connie! Didn't know you were here."

Steven snapped his neck up fast, his hand in mid stock in the spoon containers. His heart never beat so fast. He didn't think that it was possible.

She waved to him. "Yeah, I just got here." she answered Peedee.

Steven stopped stocking and ran to the table. "Hey, Connie!" he cheered. 

"Hey Steven." she smiled.

He looked at her dress and blushed. "You.. look very pretty today." And there was that famous voice crack.

And the blush came back. "Thanks."

And he sniffed her. "And you smell pretty too."

"Oh..uh, thanks?" Connie glanced at Sour Cream from the side. He shrugged. "Werewolves."

Four customers entered the building and Mr. Fryman quickly ran from the back to the cash register.

Peedee was putting the last utensils near the condiments. "Alright, Steven. Looks like we're about to get our next rush. I'll catch you later." 

Steven turned around to look at Peedee. "Oh! Sorry Peedee. I didn't help you finish with the stocking."

"That's okay, Steven. That was the easy part anyway." he picked up the boxes and started back towards the back doors. "And I think I hear the others, by the way." he backed into the doors to open them, one of the boxes hitting one of the doors and sliding out of his arms.

"Hey guuuuuys!! Did you miss me!" Jenny shouted as she swung the door open. A few bystanders looked at her way, annoyed.

"Hey Jenny." 

"Hey Connie." She looked at her ensemble. "Awww, well don't you look cute." she cooed. 

"..Thanks." Connie mumbled with a blush.

"Jenny!" Steven ran to her and she flew up. "UH uh. No kisses, this time. You're going to mess up my makeup." she pointed at her face.

"Aww.." Steven frowned.

Sour Cream put the chair back on four legs. "You're late."

"What, like, five minutes?" 

"Dude, it's like, fifteen minutes to seven."

"Come on, SC. You should've known I wasn't going to _actually_ be on time."

"Mpftt."

"Alright, but I'm here now, right? Now let's go. Buck and Kiki are in the car." 

"Oh.. We're not taking Mayor Dewey's van are we?" Sour Cream cringed.

Jenny flew down towards the door and opened it. "Neh. He had to use it for today. Something about politics and weird radio broadcasting. You know, boring stuff. Anyway, Buck rented out an SUV for today." 

"Oh an SUV this time? Niiiice." said Sour Cream.

"I call window!!!" Steven rushed through the door, nearly knocking down someone who was trying to walk in. She turned around and shook her head at him.

"Steven, watch where you're going." said Jenny. She flew through the door.

Sour Cream and Connie got up and met them at the car.

"Sup Connie." Buck gave her a small wave from the driver's side.

"Hey Connie." Kiki said from the middle seat. "Oooooo, pretty dress."

"I know right?" said Jenny from the passenger's seat. "And I'm definitely digging that hat."

Steven was rolling the window down as Connie went to the back to sit next to him.

"Everybody in?" Buck asked.

Jenny turned around and did a head count. "Yup, that's everyone. Now let's get this show on the road!"

"Wait." It was Buck's turn to turn around. "Is everyone buckled in? Safety first."

Everyone except for Connie buckled in. He looked up at her and she gave him a thumbs up. "Already did." she said. He gave her a nod. "Nice."

Buck pulled off and started their journey down the road. Steven already had his head out the window, enjoying the breeze. Connie thought that was a cute scene. Him smiling as his brown hair bounced in the wind. He looked so happy and carefree.

"So, Connie." Jenny interrupted her augling session. "Hm?"

"Any ideas what you're going to do or what rides you're going to get on?"

"Not really. I haven't been to a carnival in so long and I don't know what has changed and what hasn't." 

"Well, what do you like?"

"Mm.. rollercoasters.. and something involving water?"

"Oh, well there's plenty of rides like that."

Sour Cream whispered something in Kiki's ear and she looked back at the vampire and her backseat companion. She giggled, shaking her head as she pushed him playfully on the arm.

"What're you two whispering about back there?" Jenny asked.

"Maybe Connie could accompany Steven on the goose ride of-" 

Kiki covered Sour Cream's mouth. "Noooo, of course not!" she giggled.

"Ooooooo, the goose ride if loooooove?" Jenny curled her lips up in a wide grin. 

"No!" Kiki objected. "Now you two know they are way too young."

"What.. exactly is the goose ride of love?" Connie asked. Then she wondered if she should've asked that question or not.

"Oh, it's me and Buck's favorite ride." Jenny gleamed. "You sit in this nice comfy ride that _only_ fits two people " she winked. "And you just go on this nice little boat ride on the water. Some of the ride is inside and some if the ride shows the beautiful sceneries outside."

"Oh. Well that sounds fun."

"And you TOTALLY like, kiss each other's faces." Sour Cream cut in.

"What?!" Connie screeched.

Steven turned from the window, wondering what was going on.

"Yeah, you totally smooch throughout the whole ride. So those beautiful sceneries don't even matter." Jenny added.

Connie's face started to heat up for the eighth, ninth time that day. And everyone in truck, except for Steven, started laughing, including Buck who'd been quiet for majority of the ride so far.

"A ride you just kiss on?" Steven heard the last part and hearing that come out of his mouth made her blush even harder, if that was even possible.

"..But, isn't that for like, married couples?"

Apparently everyone thought that was hilarious.

"What?" he whined. "Mom and Dad goes on those rides, Jenny and Buck, Vidalia and Yellowtail " he listed.

They laughed even harder.

Connie didn't really see what was so funny. Is it so bad that he thought that? She was pretty traditional herself..

"Aw man, Steven. You really are such a cinnamon bun. If the Flying Nimbus was real, you wouldn't even need a car for transportation anymore." said Jenny. 

More laughter from the group.

"Come on.." Connie said softly. "Y'all are laughing at him."

Steven looked at her in shock and everyone else did the same, except for Buck, who made a quick glance at her before focusing back on the road.

"Awwww, look at Connie getting protective of her widdle cherié." Jenny cooed.

Yup, definitely the tenth blush for today.."I'm not being protective!" she squeaked.

"Don't worry, Connie, don't worry. We always tease Steven like that."

Connie looked at Steven and he gave her an "Eh, what can ya do?" kind of shrug. "It's true." he said.

Connie didn't care for teasing.. Playful teasing is still teasing, but she kept that thought to herself. Steven seemed to had read her mine and thankfully changed the subject.

"So, what're we going to do first?"

"Bumper cars." "Ka's escape from the silver dragon's fury." "Inner Tubes!" Sour Cream, Buck and the twins said over one another.

"Oh boy.." said Steven.

"Well, the bumper cars lead to all of the other bigger rides. We can do a bit of road rage before hoping on to the actual rides." said Sour Cream. 

"Neh." Buck shook his head. "I get enough of that on the real road. I vote getting the adrenaline going. We should take the biggest ride of them all." he put the blinkers on and turned left. "Also, it has the longest line and that line could be about 45 minutes at the _least_."

"Ew, who wants to wait in line for that long when they JUST arrive at a carnival?" asked Kiki " We might as well go to all of the water park rides. Then we can use the rest of the day to dry off. Besides, Connie likes water rides as well." she put her in it.

"Hmm.." Steven thought. "How about she pick the ride first since this'll be her first time there?"

They all agreed to that.

Connie had to think about it. Definitely not the bumper cars or that huge ride that Buck was talking about and she berated herself for not bringing any change of clothes for the water rides.

"Okay. How about we just get on the first ride at the park, then go from there?"

"If I'm not mistaken, the ride that's closest to the entrance is the Racecar 57." 

"The what?" asked Sour Cream.

Jenny pulled down the sun visor and pulled a comb out of her purse. "Racecar 57. You know, the one that we always get on. The one with all of those hills. They used to have the same ride right beside it that went backwards."

"Wait, isn't that the Yelling Rebellion?" asked Kiki.

Jenny combed through her hair a few times, stopped to check the results, then combed it on the other side a few times. "Yeah, they changed the name."

"What? Why?" Sour Cream twisted his face.

"I don't know. I didn't read the article about all that." She put the comb back in her purse and took out her eyeliner to touched up on her makeup before pushing the sun visor back up.

"So we go on the Yelling Rebellion, _because that's what I'm still calling it_, and then we can hope on Da Cobra. Which is like, right next to it. Has a few loops in it, but overall it's a pretty average coaster. Nothing too scary." said Sour Cream.

Steven couldn't help but feel extremely nervous. Just _talking_ about drops and loops made _his_ stomach drop and loop. He definitely wasn't a fan of rollercoasters.. Well, just the simple, small ones, but DEFINITELY not ones with huge drops AND loops...

"Great! Then we can figure out what we can do after that." said Jenny.

Buck took an exit. "We should be there in about twenty five more minutes.

.......

Twenty minutes later they were already entering the parking lot. So. Many. Cars.

"Yeeesh. Was there some kind of half of special going on or something?" asked Jenny.

"Yup." said Buck. He pointed at a sign that said exactly that. _HALF OFF SPECIAL!!_

"Hm, figures. Alright, well let's go try and find a parking spot.. somehow."

After spending nearly thirty minutes looking for a spot, they finally found an empty space.

A car was driving towards the spot on the opposite end, further away. 

Buck shook his head. "I know this person's not trying to get this space." he continued his drive towards it. The car sped up, just as Buck was nearing the spot. The car turned sharply into the space and Buck had to hit the brakes. Everyone fell forward form the sudden stop. "Everyone okay?" Buck asked. He was holding his arm out in front of Jenny. 

They all said their consecutive'yeah's.

"Who was that?" Kiki was looking around Sour Cream, trying to look out the window.

A brown figure with blue and red wings got out the car, a sly smile on his face.

"Kevin!" Steven growled out and Connie thought for a split second that Steven was going to jump out the window, but the young werewolf hung his top half out the window instead. 

"Why if it isn't Steven and his crew." he looked through the windows and Buck rolled the windows down. "Hey man. You knew we were going into that spot.

"Mmm, did I?" he shrugged. "Or maybe I didn't see you coming."

"Why are even here? Shouldn't you be at your JOB?" Kiki asked.

"Oh, was that today?" he tried to play coy. "Oh, silly me." he chuckled. "Must've slipped my mind."

"Peedee had to stay at work because of you." Steven growled out. Connie couldn't help but notice Steven looked a bit hairier than usual.

"Steven, watch the claws, it's a rental." said Jenny. Connie looked down to see sharp talon-like claws protruding from the boy's finger nails racking along the door. Kevin backed up but kept that smug faced composure as Jenny turned to shout at him. "Kevin, you smug faced fairy! You have NO reason to be here and you definitely had NO reason to steal our spot!"

"Why, whatever do you mean? I only came here to have a bit of fun, just you lovely folks."

"And to skip your job.."said Sour Cream."

"Yeah, about that.. It's too late now." he shrugged "That little dweeby werewolf is already doing my shift. Might as well, let him finish it, you know?" He cackled.

"No!" Steven barked out. "You need to go back!" 

From her angle, Connie couldn't see his face, but whatever face he was making, it made Kevin step back a few more times. His face, still in a smug look. "Yeah, like I'm going to listen to the likes of you."

Steven gave a very low, rumbling growl that was much deeper and more intimidating than the first growl he did.

"Easy, Steven." Kiki tried to calm him down. "Kevin, you're ALWAYS up to something wrong. It's not just the work thing, it's everything!"

"Heh, aye I can do what I want. I'm my own person." he poked his chest.

"Uhg.. this guy is such a tool." Connie grumbled.

The whole truck started laughing, except for Steven who was still intently focused on his target.

"What was that!" Kevin started to approach the vehicle until Steven gave a warning growl. He stopped, still trying to look through the window inside the car. "Who was that?" he saw Connie. "You? Who the heck are you?!"

Connie was just about to answer him, but Jenny cut her off. "Hey, don't even dare say anything else to her." she warned him.

"And why not?" he scowled. "She's just another dweeb you added to the group."

"And you're just a fairy."

"Oooooooooo's" cascaded throughout the van. Even Steven had lost his demeanor a bit, looking more calm as he turned to look at Connie.

"What did you say, pipsqueak?!" a blush of embarrassment spread across his nose, as he glared at Connie.

"You heard me. And quite frankly, I did even know fairies could even _be_ guys. I thought you were just a frilly little girl from behind."

More oooooo's and laughter engulfed the truck and even Steven did a bit of snickering, his eyes narrowing at Kevin.

Kevin's embarrassment deepened and he started sputtering which only made everyone laugh more.

Then he finally found his words, pointing a finger at Connie. "Of..Of COURSE guys can be fairies, ya weasel! How else do you think they're made and how majority of other monsters are made!" was his rebuttal.

Everyone still continued to laugh, except for Steven who looked confused and Connie who felt her face heat up again. _Yeah, he has a point.._ All she was trying to do was crack jokes on him and it ended up firing back at her. Nobody else seemed to notice though and she was thankful for that.

"Just give it a rest, Kevin. You just got owned by a girl! Face it!" said Jenny. 

" I didn't get owned by a gir-!!" he started sputtering again, trying to find another insult.. "Man, whatever. I'm out of here. I'll leave you losers be." he opened his wings and flew off towards the entrance.

"Need me to get him?" Jenny grabbed for the door handle. "Because I definitely can."

"No, just leave him." said Buck. "We'll just find another parking spot." he backed up a bit before driving off.

"You should've turned him into stone, Buck." said Sour Cream.

"It would've only made matters worse."

Buck pulled away from the parking lot into the main lot again.

"...So can anybody tell me _how_ fairies and other monsters are made?" Steven spoke back up, sitting back in his seat. His nails were gone and he wasn't as hairy anymore.

Everyone looked at each other, exchanging glances. "Yeah, I'm definitely not gonna be the one to tell him." said Jenny.


	16. Chapter 16

They managed to find a spot extremely far away from the entrance.

Kiki and Jenny got out of the car and Jenny looked down the parking garage and across the lot to see the entrance. "Yeah, I'm definitely not walking the whole way." she flew up and landed on the cement divider. 

Sour Cream got out the car next. "Calm down, prima dona. Nobody said anything about walking the whole way." Connie and Steven slid out the car after him.

Buck lifted the parking break up and turned the car off and got out. "I figured that's what we were going to do anyway."

"Wait, but Connie-" Kiki gestured to the vampire.

"I can fly..~ish." she said casually. "More like levitate."

"Cool." said Jenny. "So you can carry Steven and we'll be on our way." She flew off the divider and towards the entrance and Kiki followed her.

Buck gave Sour Cream a head nod and a thumbs up and Sour Cream picked him up and flew off.

_Oh no! We're up next! Okay, all I have to do is not look down-_

"Hey Steven. Are you doing okay?"

"YES-I'M-FINE!" he quickly shouted. 

"Uh.. huh. " Connie raised an eyebrow. "You're.. not afraid of heights, are you?" 

"Who, me? Pssht, of course not." he was hoping he was giving a very convincing, reassuring smile.

"Okay then." she didn't believe him. "Just hold on tight." she picked him up _effortlessly if he may add_ and he wrapped his arms around her shoulders.

He was hoping to hear her calming breath or a familiar thump of a heartbeat to help calm him down.. No breathing. No heartbeat.... Yet, for some odd reason, just being held in her arms still felt really nice and heartwarming despite the lack of actual warmth coming from her. He felt comfortable.. snugged..at home..at ease..happy..Her arms tightened around him and his heart skipped a few beats. She jumped on the cement divider.

Steven looked down and immediately regretted it. The cars below them were so far down and they were _really_ high up. Higher than a werewolf to jump and land from _ unharmed,_ that is. He closed his eyes and snuggled closer to her neck and he though he heard a giggle or more so _felt_ a giggle vibrate through her chest. He was back in his happy place.. comfortable arms.. nice scent.. relaxed... Happiness and.. lo-AAAAHHHHHH!!!! He was internally screaming as she jumped off the divider. He grabbed on tighter. This time he really did hear a chuckle. "Don't worry. I got you." she said gently in his ear. He didn't dare to open his eyes after that until he was sure she landed back on the ground. "Okay. We're here." she said.

He cracked one eye open, then the other. She let him go and he wobbled a bit. She held his arm until he was steady.

"Heh.. That, wasn't _so_ bad." he patted his hair down.

"Nope." Connie said with a side smile. The two walked towards the gate of the entrance to meet the others.

They were already on the other side. Connie pulled out her ticket from her dress pocket and approached the gate. The guy looked familiar from the side and when she finally got close and faced him, she did an over exaggerated head tilt.

"Hey there, little girl!" The guy smiled. Fangs and all again. "Fancy meeting you here!"

"Wait.. you work here too?" 

"Sure do!"

Steven walked up to her side. "Hey Mr. Smiley!!" he shouted in her ear. She looked at him, alarmed.

"Hey Steven! How's my favorite monster doing!" He cheesed.

"Great as always!" the boy cheered.

Connie thought they were having a smile off.. It was a wonder how they could continue to smile for such long periods of time..

"Glaaaaad to hear that!" Mr. Smiley belted out. "So, how's mom and pops!"

"Oh! Uh, never better!" he smiled nervously. Mr. Smiley didn't notice it. "Great!! That's what I like to hear." His smiled reached his eyes. "Welp, don't wanna keep you two waiting. Let me just get those tickets." he offered his hand and Connie and Steven gave him their tickets. "O.K! And I'll just take them." He put the two tickets together and ripped off a small part and gave the two teens the longer pieces back.

"Thanks Mr. Smiley!" Steven mushed the ticket back in his pocket. "Thanks." Connie nodded and followed the werewolf to the others.

"Took you two long enough." said Jenny. "Now come on! The Racecar fifty-" Sour Cream coughed and she sighed, rolling her eyes. "The _Yelling Rebellion._" Sour Cream gave her a proud nod. "Awaits us!"

Jenny lead the group through a few vendors and the group could already see the ride looming over them amongst all of the other coasters behind. Steven swallowed and he walked a bit closer to Connie, hoping that she wouldn't notice.

They made it to the line a minute later and Steven could feel his stomach doing flips already. 

"Oooooo!! Y'all wanna try to get to the front?!" Jenny asked.

Steven thought he felt his stomach do a full flip

"Yeaaah!! You know it." said Sour Cream.

"I got dibs on the left seat!" Kiki shouted.

Connie looked at Steven. He looked very uneasy. "Eh, I think I'll pass on that." she said to the group. "I personally always ordered to sit in the middle." she half lied. She loved sitting in the front, but she didn't really mind sitting in the middle from time to time either. And though she would've loved to be at the front of the cart, for the first ride, she preferred more to _not_ have Steven passing out on them. 

"Yeah, I'm with Connie on this one." The boy looked at her, an unsaid 'thank you' radiating from his expression. 

"Alright, but you're missing out." said Jenny.

....

Connie and Steven were only a few people away from going on their first ride together. Buck and the others were still further behind, their line being the longest as more people wanted a seat towards the front as well. 

The ride came to a screeching and exhaust as the air escaped from the brake pads. The lap bar rose and everyone got off and walked to their right. One boy ran a few feet, only to lunge over and toss his cookies, not quite making it to the trashcan. His two friends were teasing him and laughing at him. "Aw man, that was just a little baby ride, bro!" said one of them. Steven hoped that he wouldn't do the same thing.

The gate opened and next two people got on. They pulled the bar down. A few seconds later an employee did a jog through, pushing on the lap bars, making sure they were secure. The employee gave a thumbs up and the person in the booth started up the coaster. The carts started moving ahead.

Steven swallowed. Very soon, he and Connie would be on that ride and he would be screaming his head off..

Sound of air escaping and screeching again as another coaster came to a stop. The lap bars rose as people got off, laughing, chattering and or trembling with their friends. The gate opened and the one person in front of them got on.

Steven's heart began to beat a bit faster and his stomach felt hot and twisted. They were next. He looked back at the rest of the crew. They were still a bit of ways back from the front.

The carts pulled off and what seemed to be way too quick for Steven, another coaster was already pulling up to a stop. The incredibly loud sound of the air pushing out of the brake pads and the loud screeching sound of the wheels on the tracks.

"Hey, Steven." he turned to Connie and she gave him a small, worried smile. "Are you one hundred percent sure you want to get on?"

Everyone started to get off the ride.

"Umm.." he shifted his footing. He never went on huge rides like these and apparently it wasn't a big ride to begin with, but he still wasn't a fan of rides like this. But he also wanted to spend time with Connie. He didn't want to ruin the day for her.

The gates snapped open.

"Steven?" she called his name again, rasing an eyebrow.

He tried to internally shake out the nerves. "Y, yeah! One hundred percent." He gave her a shaky, nervous smile and a thumbs up.

"Oookayy." she made her way to the left side of the seat and Steven shakily sat down next to her. She pulled the lap bar down and it hit Steven's thighs. It clicked and locked into place. He turned to see a couple inches of a gap between Connie's legs and the bar and he was hoping and fearing that that wouldn't make too much of a difference for the ride.

She watched his gaze and gave him a reassuring smile. "Don't worry. Some lap bars stop at a certain level anyway. This has happened to me before. I can still enjoy the ride." 

"OH! Uh.. that's good." he felt his face heating up, whether from embarrassment as he berated himself for being self conscious and Connie catching that or of her being thoughtful and not making a big deal of the situation, he couldn't tell.

The coaster started to pull off in a sudden push. _Wait, did the guy already check the bars?!_ He hadn't noticed. He must've been too focused on him and Connie. And now he didn't have enough time to prepare himself before the ride started because it had al_ready_ started.

The ride pulled into a low grumbled rattle as it began it's ascend. Steven was already clamping hard into the already scratched up leather lap bar_most likely due to other scaredy monsters pawing and scratching at it_. He swallowed a shaky breath, making sure to keep his nails in.

The cart continued it's ascend and Steven turned to his left to see the drop tower and a few other rides, some smaller, some bigger with loops and bigger drops than the ride he was on now. He turned to his right to see Connie smiling with her extremely cute fangs. He smiled at that, but his smile vanished immediately as he noticed that the trees behind her were far below them. He snapped his head back around and closed his eyes tightly. He drew another deep breath in and out through his nose.

_CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK_..The metal piece from beneath the carts were hitting and sliding along the teeth of the chains as the coaster neared it's highest point on the ride. 

Steven cracked open an eye and saw that they were nearly at the top. He could see the front carts arching along the curvature of the track. He quickly closed his eye as the coaster chugged up closer. There was a grinding noise as the coaster dipped down and Steven felt the whole bottom of his stomach reach his throat as the coaster rushed down the tracks. He held in a scream, groaning instead, as the air shot up into his nose. His hair bounced and failed around. 

The coaster was making another ascend as it rode along the first hump, then the second. Steven tried to catch his breath before the coaster began another ascend, higher as it reached a third hump of the track. He couldn't and the coaster was already rushing down the third hill.

"Woooooo!!!! Yeah!!!!" he heard Connie screaming on the right of him, along with the other people riding the coaster. He could envision her laughing with her arms up in the air.

They were rounding a bin and Steven cracked both his eyes open to see the next dips that they were soon to go through. He whimpered a bit and berated himself for being such a scared pup. He took in as many breaths as he could before the coaster started it's descend down the next hill, quickly going over the next few hills. He kept his eyes cracked, looking to his left at the tracks that they'd just previously rode along.

They were nearing a tunnel and Steven started feeling relieved. They were almost at the end of the track. They rode underneath of the covering for a few moments until a metal clank was heard, as the coaster came to a rushed stop. Slow, rubbing noises and light clicks echoed through the inside of the tunnel as they reached the start/stop point of the ride.

People on the ride, including Connie, were laughing and clapping as the ride finally reached it's stop with the signature PSSSSHHHHHHHTTT as the air left the brake pads.

A few seconds too long for Steven's comfort, the lap bars finally lifted up. He scrambled to his feet and would've bolted out the cart, but Connie was still in front of him, getting out the cart slowly. He stumbled out the cart and was so relieved and so happy to be standing on the concrete floor on the other side of the ride. 

Connie was still cheering. She jumped up and down a few times. "That was so much fun!" she laughed, turning to him. Her face dropped just a small bit into a bashful expression. "Um.. Are you feeling okay, Steven?" 

He walked on shaky legs towards her. "Y,-Yeah. I'm uh, A-Okay." his voice was as shaky as his noodle-like legs.

Connie didn't buy it. Giving him an apologetic smile. "Maybe we should hold off on these rides for awhile." she said to him. _Or for the whole day_ his mind shouted out him.

"Steven! Connie!" The two heard Jenny shouting their names from the other side of the track. She was waving to them. "Wait over by the ice cream stand! We'll met you two over there!" They were finally in a different line, behind the gates. Buck and Jenny were in lane one and Sour Cream and Kiki were in lane two.

"Will do!" Connie waved back. She turned to Steven. "Come on, let's go sit down."

He nodded enthusiastically to that, the nervous look still on his face as he wobbled alongside Connie to the nearest bench by the ice cream stand.

Steven was thinking about getting an ice cream cone, but with the box carts of one coaster vibrating and bouncing along the wooded grids and the grinding noise as another coaster raised and dipped along the hills, his stomach only continued to churn more, which definitely wouldn't make an ideal time to eat. 

"Feeling a bit better now?" he heard Connie say to him. He was so busy looking up at the first ascend of the tracks, he almost didn't realize she was talking to him. "Huh? Oh, uh, yeah." he clasped his hands in his lap."I'm uh..feeling a bit better now." he laughed at how ridiculous he must've looked on the ride and after it, getting all scared like that.

"Good." Connie leaned back on the bench. "I was getting a little worried. I thought the ride must've broke you." she chuckled at her joke. 

_She was worried about me?! Oh wait, maybe she said it in a joking way.. she_ did _laugh.._ "No." he shook his head, a faint sign of a smile on his face. Then, he tried to sound macho. "Why, that ride couldn't break me if it tried." he poked his chin up and puffed his chest out.

Connie chuckled. "Oh yeah?"

He kept his pose, giving her a heroic, quick nod, his eyes narrowed in determination.

"Then I guess you wouldn't mind going on" she pointed her finger at the tallest ride in the park, Steven followed her finger. "Ka's escape from the silver dragon's fury." she challenged.

His whole macho demeanor faltered and fell apart instantly, as he dropped his pose, sputtering as he tried to piece together a proper excu-reason why he couldn't go on the most SCARIEST ride of all time.

Connie only laughed harder. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding." she held her hands up. "Yeah, honestly, even _I'm_ kinda afraid of that one."

"Heheh, yeah." Steven mumbled.

Jenny and the crew were walking up, talking about the ride as another coaster rumbled and roared on pass "... still can't believe they don't have the backwards one anymore" said Kiki.

"Right?!" Jenny shouted. "I would go on that one ALL the time. I prefer that one over the one that takes you forward.. And remember how they use to race the two tracks? Oh man, I miss that so much!"

"It really is a shame they don't have it anymore." said Sour Cream.

"Then they had the nerve to change the name of it." Jenny folded her arms, shaking her head.

Connie and Steven got up from the bench. "So, what's next on our list?" Connie asked them.

Jenny dropped her arms as she looked around. "Hm, not sure. There's just so much to do. That _and_ every one would most likely want to go on totally different rides anyway."

"Why don't we just split up?" said Sour Cream. "We can just meet back at the entrance at a specific time."

They all thought about it and it was unanimous. They all agreed to it.

"So, what time should we meet back at the gates?" Kiki asked.

"Say, four in the morning?" Jenny proposed.

They all thought about it before agreeing unanimously again.

"Ooooooo, come on, Buck!" Let's go on some water rides!!" Jenny pulled on his arm, pulling him away from the group. The guy watched sadly from his shades as she pulled him further and further away from the drop tower ride.

"See you guys later!" Kiki shouted. "Okay, so what ride should we go on next?" she asked Sour Cream. The two though about it before they both shouted "Intimidation 305!" they turned on their heels. "See you two later!" Kiki ran with Sour Cream.

The two stood their, watching the pairs embark on their carnival adventures.

Then Connie spoke up. "So, what ride do you want to go on next? Uh, that's _if_ you want to go on any more rides."

"Yeah, of course I do." he said matter of factly. "Just.. not rides like those." he pointed to the one they were just on. A coaster zoomed down on the tracks above them. He shuddered.

"Mm, okay. That's fine with me. So, what ride do you want to get on now?"

"Hmmm.." Steven thought. Then a huge smile spread across his face. "I know JUST the ride!"

........


	17. Chapter 17

"Woooooo!!!! Yeaaaaheheheheyeahh!!!" Steven cheered as the ride turned another corner into a small dip. He laughed, feeling the strands of hair tickling his forehead as the wind flipped and pushed on his hair. He felt so aliiiiive!

Connie watched Steven from the seat behind him, as the one seater coaster just went straight, at a very, veeeery easy pace. Kids were screaming and laughing behind her. She took that time to look around the park, watching the parents and their kids walk casually at the park. She even watched as a mother took a picture of her crying son, his dad holding him as they took a picture of the park's mascot, Dogcopter. Connie chuckled a bit. Poor thing.

After thirty very long seconds of turning corners and going over smooth bumps, the coaster came to a stop.

Steven nearly jumped out of his seat. "Woohoo!! That was so much fun!" he bounced, turning towards Connie. "Wanna go again?" he smiled.

She tilted her head and tried to give him the most softest, most apologetic smile she could make. "I.. was kinda hoping we could go on something else?" she said with a raise in intonation at the end.

"Oh." his smile fell, then it came back slowly. "Mmm, there is another awesome ride that we can get on. Come on! It's not too far from here." he ran pass the exit doors and ran down the steps, the metal steps clanking as he did. Connie followed behind.

They ran pass a few other kiddie rides, a lemonade stand and a churro stand before Steven slowed down to a stop. "Here we are!" he raised his hands above his head, showing off the incredible ride in front of them. "Ta-da!" Connie looked at the attraction before them. 

In the middle of the ride was a giant green alien with several tentacles. It was from a popular cartoon Connie couldn't quite remember the name of. Underneath of the alien's tentacles was the actual ride. A horizontal base was below the alien as several mechanical arms jetted from the base. On the end of each arm was a two-seater spaceship. The base was spinning the arms at a very slow pace, while the mechanical arms rose and glided gently into a descend, the spaceships rising and falling at a slow rhythm.

"Oh." Then Connie tried to sound encouraging. "This looks nice.. The character is pretty popular, I think." 

"Yeah! He really is! He's from one of my favorite cartoons!" 

The two of them walked underneath of The Twirler sign and towards the ride. It didn't take them too long to get to the gate.

As the other kids and their parents got off, the employee opened the gate for the next group of people. Steven chose the spaceship that, according to him, looked exactly like Cookie Cat's spaceship. A character from some old 70's cartoon 'Cookie Cat and the Space Adventurer Warriors!' And yes, you had to put the exclamation point at the end, was also what Steven told her. He also told her that the 90's reboot 'The New Adventures of Cookie Cat & the Adventurers of the Universal Galaxy' wasn't as good as the original. He also _also_ told her that the REBOOT reboot 'Cookie Cat's Space Adventures', that had recently been renewed for three more seasons, was absolutely horrible and that it was NOTHING like the original.

It was light with dark pink circles for lights around the waist of the ship and various shades of pink stripes decorated the rest of the ship. They got in, the two sitting on some surprisingly comfortable pink leather seats.

"See, Connie! It's like an EXACT replica! Here's the cookie cat nozzle where he gets his milk." Steven pointed at a square white button. Connie couldn't bring herself to tell him that you actually _shouldn't_ give cats milk. "... and this is the red button that ejects you out your seat. _Don't wanna make a mistake and press THAT one_." he said slyly. "And this is the blue button that dispenses cat treats and-" Steven continued to show her the different buttons and gadgets until the door of the spaceship started to come down. "Ooooo!! It's starting!!" Steven squealed. The door closed with a click and the lights on the dashboard lit up a pretty white, pink, yellow and blue. The spaceship started to move and lift up. "Aaaaand, we have lift off!"

"That's for planes, Steven."

"Oh right.. Blast off?"

Connie smiled, shaking her head. "Rockets."

The base of the machine whirled slowly as the mechanical arms waved up and down gently.

"Yeah well." he shrugged, giving a big toothy grin. "We're already in the air anyway." he said casually. Then he gasped and his smile grew wider. I know the PERFECT, delicious thing to say or more so _rap._" he wiggled his eyebrows at Connie. She didn't get what he meant. He turned back around, his hands on the steering wheel. "Join in if you know the words!" He took a deep breath. "OOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH!!!" he started bouncing in his seat. "He's a frozen treat with an all new taste! 'Cause he came to this planet from outer space!"

The lights along the dashboard and on the doors and the ceilings of the spaceship seemed to blink and dance along with the words of the rap.

"A refugee of an interstellar war! But now he's at your local grocery store! Cookie Cat! He's a pet for your tummy! Cookie Cat! He's super duper yummy! Cookie Cat! He left his family behind! Cookie CaaaAAAT!" Then he said quickly, lowering his voice. "Now available at Gurgens off Route 109." he laughed to himself and Connie gave a chuckle. She didn't know the tune, but it was pretty funny and cute watching him be all enthusiast with the rap. 

The spaceship continued to rise and dip at a very gentle rate.

Steven's fits of laugher started to die down. "Hahahaehehhe, ah, aw man, Connie. You didn't join in." he said, but he was still smiling.

"I.. don't really know that tune." she said bashfully, staring out the pink tinted windows into the park. Eager kids were waiting by the gate.

"But it's like, the best ice cream rap ever!"

Connie tilted her head, giving a "what can I say?" kind of shrug.

"Oh, that's fine." said Steven. "It's not like people hear the tune anymore." then his smile fell. "Not since they got discontinued because of those stupid lion lickers."

"Oh.. sorry to hear that." And she really was sorry to hear that. The poor boy really looked distrought because of that.

"Yeah, well." he shrugged and a half of a smile came to his face. "Mom and Dad managed to buy out the whole stock before they got rid of them all. They're all in the deep freezer and I have enough to save me for a few months." 

The space ship started to slow down as the base brought the mechanical arms back down.

"That's great!" said Connie with a smile. "They seem like very nice parents." 

"They really are!" 

The spaceship came to a stop and the lights throughout the interior went out. The door snapped open, lifting up. They both jumped out and started walking to the exit with everyone else. 

"Hey, Connie. Why don't you choose a ride this time?"

"Mm, but I don't really know the park like that." then a beat later. "I don't know the park at all." 

Realization came over Steven's face. "Oh, right, right, right. Okay, hmmm." he thought. "Maybe we can go on the airplanes!" he enthusiastically suggested.

Connie gave him a casual shrug. "Sure."

Steven cheered and ran out the exit to the next coaster.

The next ride wasn't too far either. Just a walk underneath a bridge as they past a few more shops and rides.

Connie looked at the ride just a few feet in front of them. It looked pretty much like the same ride that they just got off of.. She must've made a face because Steven said "Now I know what you're thinking. Why Steven, isn't this the same exact ride as the last one?" he waited a bit, but Connie didn't say anything back. She didn't figure she had. She thought it was rhetorical. 

Steven resumed. "And the answer is, yes. Yes it is.. BUT" he said quickly, holding up an index finger. "THIS ride." he swung around and pointed at the ride with the same finger. "Doesn't have a roof!" (As if that was the deal breaker..) "See, the last one was a flashy spaceship, but _this_ one is an airplane, so you can like, see more of the park, AND you have the wind in your hair!" he brushed the sides of his hair in a back swooshing motion.

"And it even goes faster than the spaceship one. AAAAANND" then he stopped, bending his head down, his hand reaching up to touch the side of his mouth. A universal cue that he wanted to tell her something in secret. She bent down, turning her head so he can whisper in her ear. He leaned over, his hand touching her ear as his breath hit her earlobe. "And." he whispered. "One time, when nobody was waiting in line...Pee Dee and I totally stayed on the ride.. withOUT getting off first!" he leaned back and she just stared at him. "Yes, I live on the wild side at times, Connie." he pulled up his collar and made a smug face, but it was as smug as a kitten with a ball of warn.

The employee opened the gate and they went towards the ride. They got on a purple airplane with two single seats, one behind the other. Connie let Steven get in the front seat. He seemed to really love his air, apart from that one roller coaster ride of course..

The ride started up, the base of the ride raising the arms up as they began to turn the airplanes. Steven was right, the ride _was_ a bit faster. But only a tiny bit. It was still extremely slow compared to the much bigger rides she was used to getting on, but if being on rides like these made him happy, so be it.

The werewolf lifted his arms up in the air and turned around to Connie, his hair hitting his eyes from the wind. "I always imagined that this is how it's like to fly." he smiled.

Connie sat there, putting more focus on the ride. Mmm, she _guessed_ that it resembled flying? "More or less." she said to him.

"Connie~~." he beckoned her with a childlike laugh. "You have to have fun!" he turned back around. "Just raise your arms in the air and just.." he closed his eyes "imagine." he sat there with his eyes closed and his arms up and out from his sides as the airplane whirled and bobbed slightly. 

Connie watched him and his childlike wonder a bit more before doing it herself. She raised her arms and closed her eyes. And she could already feel the gift of flight, without even having to imagine anything yet. She took a few deep breaths and relaxed even more. Then she took Steven up on his offer and actually imagined that she was flying. The wind was brushing past her face in a cool breeze and she was being carried up and down the imaginary wind current with her imaginary wings. A few strands of her hair tickled her face and she giggled. She let out a contented sigh. She felt free.

"Yeah! Now you're doing it!" Steven cheered from the front. He turned back around and closed his eyes again, imagining himself flying towards a mountain of raw steak.

The ride slowed down as the base brought them down and Connie had found herself with her eyes closed and her arms out until the very last end of the ride and even after it stopped.

Steven got out tof the seat and she finally opened her eyes and put her arms down. "Wow. That really is like flying." she breathed out. "Or maybe even better because you don't have to do it yourself." she got out the seat just as everyone else was getting into their planes. They looked around and Steven gave her a mischievous glance. She was confused until she finally realized what he was hinting at.

"Looks like there's nobody else for the ride." he winked. "So. Wanna go again?" he turned and cocked his head to the side, his hand on his chin. "Wanna go on.. the wild side?"

Connie laughed for the, what felt like the 200th time that day. "Sure."

They ended going on the ride two more times in a row before one of the employees finally shooed them off.

"Oop! We've been caught!" Steven giggled. "Time to blow this popsicle stand." he ran out the exit with Connie laughing right beside him.

They came to a stop right behind a watering hole. Kids were playing in the water as the streams shot up from the holes in the ground. 

"That definitely takes me back." Steven said, watching the kids giggle and pat the water with their hands. 

"Yeah, I can imagine little Steven playing in the water." 

Steven nodded. "Yeah, I would shapeshift into a wolf and I would try to bite the water." he shook his head, chuckling. "Guess I thought I could." he raised his hands out and waved them. "Attack the great big water goblins." he laughed some more. Connie laughed along with him. "Aw man, are you serious?"

"Heyy." he laughed. "I was only a pup, I didn't know any better." he tried to defend himself.

Connie continued to laugh. "No, no, I get it. I completely understand. I shouldn't be laughing at that." then she laughed some more. "But that sounds so cute." she made a mistake and let out.

_Cute!_"Hehe, well.. Laugh all you want." he made a hero pose, his chin up, his chest out and his arms on his hips. "For I have successfully defeated all of the evil water goblins and that you, fair civilian, are now safe." he said in a low tone.

"Oh." Connie acted, putting a hand on her chest. "My hero."

Steven closed his eyes, smiling and Connie quickly thought of an idea.

Steven continued to monologue with his eyes closed. "Yes, my fair maiden. With my super duper awesome werewolf super powers, I have successfully destroyed each and every water go-bleh! Hey!" he opened his eyes to see Connie stifling her laugh with her hand. She'd cupped some water in her hands and had splashed the water in his face. Steven took his hands from off his side and raised them up in front of him. Connie gave a playful laugh as he started chasing after her. The two ran through the water sprouts, not caring about their clothes getting wet.

"I'm gonna get ya, Connie!" he opened his hands in a grab.

She moved away, turning around and moving pass him and back down the water sprouts again. They chased each other for a few minutes until the game started losing it's momentum. That, and they didn't want to continue to be in the kids' way. It was _their_ little play area, after all. Not theirs.

"So." Steven looked around. "Let's see which ride we can get on next.".

"Ooo! How about that one!" Connie pointed to a two seater ride that hung from thin track. She saw the feet of the kids dangle as they glided along the track.

"Oh, The Flying Pterodactyls?" Steven asked.

"Yeah!" Connie nodded. "That looks like fun. And since it has 'flying' in the name, it probably feels like we're flying too." Like that other ride."

"It sure does! Steven shouted. "I haven't been on there in years, but I do remember it being really fun."

They carefully walked across the slippery ceramic tiles on the ground, not wanting to slip. As soon as they hit dry ground, they immediately started running towards the ride.


	18. Chapter 18

They caught up to the line and started waiting. Steven turned around. "Awe man, Connie. You're gonna LOVE this ride. If I'm not mistaken, this ride takes you right over the water and a few other rides too!"

By the time they got to the front, they were both bouncing with anticipated joy.

The employee looked at them, then at a lady behind them. "They're with you?" she asked her.

The lady shook her head. "No, I'm with them." she placed each hand on a shoulder of her two small sons.

"Ohh.." The girl smacked her teeth as she looked back at Steven and Connie. "Sorry but, you can't be over this height, unless accompanied by an adult." she told them.

"Oh, what-?" "That doesn't make any sense-""But I wanted to fly-" "I want to see the water-. "We waited in this line for nothing?" "I can't believe we waited in line for nothing." Steven and Connie protested, talking over one another.

The girl stared at them, disinterested. She gave a simple shrug. "Sorry." _She wasn't sorry_. "But, rules are rules." she said in a bored, monotone voice.

Connie sighed, grabbing Steven's arm. "Fine. We'll just go on some better rides." she marched off.

"Mhm." the employee was quick to turn her attention back to the other people. She opened the gate for them to pass.

"Sorry, Connie. Guess I forgot about the height requirements." he twiddled his fingers.

"That's okay." she said. "That ride is probably bogus anyway."

"Trying to make yourself feel better, huh?"

Connie gave a defeated nod of her head.

"Yeah, I do that too."

The two continued their walk of shame, walking nowhere in particular, until Steven spotted something familiar. His mood brightened up. "Connie! Connie! Connie!!" he shook her shoulders.

"Whoaaaaaaaaaaa, what? What is it?"

He pointed to a dome. Underneath of it lay cars attached to a single wire. Sparks danced around the ceiling. "Bumper cars!!!" he squealed.

"But I'm not really good at them. Last time I was on one, the cart went right in the center and I couldn't get the car to pull away from it. I literally sat there in the center the whole ride.. Embarrassing.."

Steven laughed. "Yeah, that happened to me a few times before I got the hang of it. But you can just sit with me, if you want."

Connie thought about it. She didn't care for bumper cars, not only because of that particularembarrassing time, but also because she simply didn't like it. Being randomly bumped by random people. She didn't care for it at all.. Buuut, they were probably only going to go on the ride once. And Steven was with her, so maybe it would be different. "Alright." she said eventually.

"Yayyy!!!" Steven cheered.

They ran out of the park, running underneath of a huge sign with the words plastered on it in colorful letters, KIDDIE KIDDIE LAND and towards the dome to wait in the long line.

A couple minutes later and they were near the entrance. The employee let them pass_ unlike that other girl.._ and they started walking across the floor. Steven was looking around, sniffing the air. Then he caught that faint familiar scent and turned to his left, running for a blue car with red lightning stripes. "Come on, Connie! This one's a good one!" 

"What about all of the other cars this color? What makes this one so special?" she jumped in the passenger's side as Steven climbed to the driver's side.

"This is the one that Pee Dee and I always get on. It's much faster and much stronger than all of the others." Steven grabbed hold of the steering wheel. "We get on this one every time we come here."

"And the scent is still there after _how_ many years?" she was surprised that the scent was still there AND that he could still smell them.. _Wow.. Werewolves _do_ have an incredibly strong sense of smell._

"Only about two years. But it's not just our regular scent. Pee Dee and I marked ALL around this car, so we'll always know which one it is." he smiled.

The cars turned on with a jerk.

_Marked?!_ Connie looked at the seat underneath them, disgusted that her dress my now very well have Steven and Pee Dee's- "Don't worry Connie. We've only marked all around the sides, not actually _in_ the car " he said casually. He passed two cars that had bumped each other.

Connie relaxed a bit, putting her thigh back down on the seat.

"So, Connie." he tried to start a casual conversation. "UH oh!" he turned his wheel sharp, avoiding a car that had just bumped into the medium strip on his left. Connie jerked to the side from the motion. "Whoops, hehe. Sorry." he said. "So, Connie. What other kinds of stuff do you like to do at carnivals? " he tried to pass in between two cars, _rookie mistake.. and he knew that.._ and the two cars sandwich him in, bumping him, preventing him from going anyway. They continued to bump him and every time they would pull away to bump him again, he would slide out inch by inch, slowly moving forward.

"Well." Connie thought. She continued to jerk from the movements of the car. "Apart from roller coasters, I like those little carnival games.. even though they're a huge rip off."

"They're not rigged Connie." A few more bumps from each side. "Oh, come on. Just let us get through!" he told the kids, still inching forward between them. The kids just teased and laughed. "Neh nehhh." they continued to tease him.

"Of course they are. Nobody ever wins them."

Steven ignored her for just a few seconds, his focus on getting through the two kids. He jerked the wheel left and right as the car continued to inch out more and more. With one more right turn, he was able to get through, pushing and bumping the kid to the wall. The kid shouted in surprise. "Sorry!" Steven shouted as he turned the steering wheel to the right to prevent himself from crashing into the wall as well. Once they were in a clearing, he finally spoke back up. "I've one lot's of times." he said. "You just have to know how to properly play the games. For example, you know that ring toss game?" he swerved out the way and drifted, avoiding a four car crash.

"Yeah."

"People think it's rigged. But all you really have to do is-" Someone rammed into them, causing the two to pop forward towards the front of the car. They winced. "Hey, what was that for?" "Did you have to crash into us so hard?" Steven and Connie said over one another. They turned around to see Sour Cream, right behind them, cackling. " 'What was that for' ? This _is_ bumper cars, Steven." he started cackling more. "And boy, did I get y'all good! _BUMP_ "Hey!" Sour Cream turned around to see Jenny, still ramming the car into his bumper, mischievously laughing as she did so. Buck had his feet up on the dashboard, with his arms behind his back, leaning back and relaxing. "You got them, now I got you!" Jenny laughed.

Steven pulled away from Sour Cream's car, only to be hit again from the front. "What, Kiki?! Not you too!" Steven whined.

"Sorry, Steven!" she laughed. "But it's every man for himself!" she bumped him again, laughing. Then Sour Cream managed to twisted away from Jenny. He ran into Steven's side. "Nowhere left to drive!" he said.

"Oh no! They got me!" Steven dramatized. "Save yourself, Connie." he continued to try his best to drive away, turning right and away from Sour Cream and the middle divider.

"No! We still have a chance to get out." Connie reached over and grabbed the steering wheel, steering the car to the left, right into Sour Cream. Jenny came up, hitting them in the back. Connie and Steven continued to steer left, pushing Sour Cream's car further towards the divider. Eventually Sour Cream's car jerked back as it was pushed into the divider. Their car swerved towards the divider, causing Jenny to ram right into the front of Kiki's car. Kiki gasped. "Oh no you did not!"

Steven and Connie tried to quickly change direction to avoid the divider, turning left, hitting the side of Kiki's car. Kiki was being bumped out the way, her car scrapping against the front of Jenny's car as Steven and Connie turned left, driving off. Kiki used that momentum to slam into Buck's side of the car. Buck didn't move, still keeping his relaxed posture.

Sour Cream finally got his car out of the medium strip and turned the wheel sharply to the right, hitting the right side of Jenny. She was now caught between her sister and Sour Cream. "Oh, Buck! I'm stuck!" Buck continued to sit there, leaning back and all nonchalant. He shook his head. She sighed and continued to turn and jerk the car every which way, but to no avail.

Steven and Connie were far away from them, laughing as they made their getaway. "YEAHEH! We did it!" He threw is his arms in the air and the car instantly jerked to the side and he quickly grabbed a hold of the steering wheel.

"You're right. This really is the best car!" Connie cheered.

"Told ya." he beamed.

They continued to ride the bummer cars for a couple more minutes, riding pass Jenny who was still just as stuck as she was before. Kiki and Sour Cream still bumping her as they did their maniacal laughs.

The cars eventually slowed to a stop and everyone started getting out. Steven quickly got out to help Connie out the car, not that she needed any help, but because he wanted to and it was the gentleman thing to do.

The two started walking away until Steven stopped. He turned around and thought for a moment. "Hmmm.. maybe I should.." He shapeshift just a small part of his bottom half, a part of his tail sticking out from his pants as he grabbed a hold of his pants ready to pull them down.

"Steven no!" he heard Kiki squeal. The boy stopped, his hands still on his waste bandage as he looked up confused.

"Ew, not in front of Connie." she pointed at the girl who had an equally disgusted look.

"Aww.." he let go of his pants. "But my scent is fading."

"Then just, I don't know, do it when Pee Dee is with you or something? Just don't do it in front of Connie."

"...Ok.." Steven shapeshifted back and followed the group out.

They all stop by the edge of the dome. Buck was leaning on the banister. "So, what's next on the list?"

"Mmm, I'm thinking huge, scary rides or those tall water rides again." Jenny clapped.

Steven felt that dip in his stomach again and he had to stop himself from grabbing his stomach.

Connie saw him from the corner of her eye.

"Yeah, we should definitely do the water parks next. I reaaaally want to go to the wave pool!" said Kiki. "I heard that they made the waves bigger!"

"Ooo! And that's right by Krazy Membrane! Dude, that slide has like the ULTIMATE vertical dip ever!" Jenny exclaimed.

Steven's face twisted into a sour expression and Connie stepped in. "Sounds like fun!" she said. "Buuuuut, Steven and I already made up our plan for the rest of the night." 

"Oh. Really?" Jenny asked, raising an eyebrow. Her and the group didn't believe her.

"Yes." she said plainly before turning to Steven. "Going back to KKL, right?" she asked him.

It took him a few moments to realize what she meant and a huge smile spread across his face as he nodded quickly.

"Alright, we'll see y'all later!" Connie waved to them before taking off with a very relieved Steven.

Jenny tilted there head. "Did she really just abbreviate Kiddie Kiddie Land as if we weren't going to put two and two together? What are we, three?" she shrugged. "Anyway.. So we going to the water park now, right?" she asked the group. 

.........

Steven and Connie ran back under the KIDDIE KIDDIE LAND sign again and Steven couldn't help but feel even more relieved and happy now that he was back in his element. "Oh, I missed this place SO much!"

"But we've only been gone for like 45 minutes."

"I know." he said, his hands clasped and his voice shaky with bliss emotion.

Connie could only shake her head, smiling. "So, we still have like 4 hours left. What would you like to do next?"

"OH!" Steven immediately shouted as an idea popped up in his mind. "Hm, I wonder of it's still under construction? Mm, just give me a sec." he jogged over to the directory, a big wooded board with a map blowup of the park. He raised his finger, skimming as he traced his finger along the map until. "A HA! There it is!" he cheered. "They finally pulled the tape off! That means it's finally open!!"

"What's finally open?" Connie was walking over, looking at the map.

Steven chuckled. "You'll see. Come on! This one is SO cool and it's not even a ride!" he gestured her to follow him and he turned, running away. 

_Huh? Not a ride? Where are we going, to the arcade?_ She followed after him.


	19. Chapter 19

After a five minute walk through the park, Steven and Connie were nearing a building from it's side. It looked lopsided and cartoony. Even down to the thick, yellow, plastic-looking bricks.

They walked to the front of the buiding and Connie felt a tinge of "oh boy..." in her mind as she read the name of the building in orange blue and green cartoony letters all in different sizes. _Mr. Quiggly's fun house of mirrors!_.

"It looks even better than before!" the wereboy shouted. "Come on, Connie! You're gonna love this place." he took her arm and started running up the steps. She trudged along. "Um, Steven?" she stopped in front of the door just as he was opening it. He looked at her. "Hm? What is it?" 

"I uh.. can't go in there." she rubbed her neck with her other hand.

"Huh?" He tilted his head. Then he thought about it and started laughing, shaking his head. "Ah, Connie. No need to be scared of mirrors." he said casually.

"But I'm not sca-" 

"Come on, it's me. No need to lie." he let go of her arm. "The mirrors are in NO way another vampire. It's just your reflection. It's not another girl and you don't have to fear that she's gonna get you, or that you have to protect yourself " he opened the door in a welcoming manner, offering her to go inside first. "Don't worry, take it from me. Mirrors are ONLY your reflection and can't hurt you nor are they someone else." he flashed her a smile.

She breathed out. She didn't bother explaining. "You'll see what I mean." she said, a wry smile on her face.

They entered the threshold and right in front of them was another door with a huge piece of laminated paper with rules of the house as well as what the house consisted of and what to do if one ever got lost. Beside the door, on the right side were two bins. One with GPS trackers and the other with plastic gloves.

They picked up their tracker pagers and some plastic gloves from the bin.

"Very hygienic." said Connie slipping on the gloves. 

"Yeah, they have it so people don't get all of their fingerprints and paw prints on it." he picked up and showed her a pair of gloves shaped like paws before putting it back inside the box. Connie also found that pretty cute, though she didn't say it out loud.

Steven put his gloves on and placed his hand on the door. "And now." he pushed the door all the way open. "Time to have some more fun!" he ran inside and held the door for Connie. She walked in and he let go, the door swinging a few times before stopping. 

The inside of the house looked even more cartoony than the outside of it. The walls, ceilings and floorboards were a high, bright yellow and the edges of the different types of mirrors that were spread out in front of them were of various shades of warm colors. Steven ran to one. He started laughing the moment he saw himself in the mirror. "Hey! Check this one out Connie! Look at my arms." He held his arms out, making a muscle. In the mirror, only his arms were extremely muscular and buff while the rest of his body stayed the same. She walked over and confusion fell across his face as he stood, staring at the floating clothes in the mirror. "Uh...?" he looked at Connie, then looked at the mirror, then back at Connie.

"Can't see a vampire's reflection." she shrugged.

"Oh.." his expression fell into bashfulness. "Hehe, oh... I guess that's why you didn't want to go in here." 

"Mm, it's not that I didn't want to go, it's just.. I won't be able to really get that full effect of mirrors."

Steven furrowed his eyes in thought. There had to be something that Connie could do.. Then he got it. "Connie! You can still go to the maze room! There's no silly mirrors, but there's LOTS and LOTS of mirrors in there! You don't have to worry about your reflection not being shown. You still have your clothes." he pointed at her dress. "The object is to find your way out. Easier said than done." he added.

"That sounds pretty fun." said Connie. "Think we'll be able to find our way out? Or do you think we'll have to call one of the employees to come get us?"

Steven chuckled. "Only one way to find out." he cheesed and resumed his walk, passing the mirrors, stopping at some of them to get a better look. One mirror made his legs very tall and thin, with his arms elongated to the floor, while the bottom of Connie's dress and her tights just stretched upwards. Another mirror made Steven very short and wide, while it made Connie's dress and hat squish together and stretch out. Another mirror had only stretched out his torso, while it stretched out Connie's dress and hat. They passed a few more mirrors, Steven making funny faces and posing for Connie. She couldn't help but laugh.

Then they wound a bin. "Hm. I guess that's all of them." said Steven. "Welp. This must be the door that leads to the maze." he opened it to see rows and rows of mirrors placed strategically around the huge room. Above them was the ceiling electronically lit up as the night sky. Fireworks and shooting stars played on a loop above them. The floor was lit up like yellow, silver and blue glow sticks and a solid blue colorful light was around the edges of nearly every mirror.

"Wow. This place looks pretty cool." Connie breathed out. 

Steven took a few steps towards a mirror, tracing his finger along the colorful wire around the edge of it. "Sure is." he turned around to Connie. "They usually change the theme. This one must be space related. Last time, before it got closed down for renovation, it was more of a summer theme, so it was much MUCH brighter than this." he looked around. "But this is still just as cool. It just makes the maze a bit harder since it's much dimmer in here though."

"That's okay." she walked the opposite way, checking out the mirrors. "We just need to pay attention to the direction that we go in."

He walked back to her. "Yeah, I agree. Don't want to be getting lost now." he chuckled. 

They started walking forward from where Connie was and just a few steps in, Connie walked into a mirror. "Owch." she rubbed her nose. Steven tried to hold in his laugh, snorting.

"Oh, think you can do better?" she challenged him.

"Mmm, perhaps so." he got in front of her, with his hands out, touching on the mirrors as he lead the way easily. He looked up at a mirror a few feet ahead of him and gave a smug look directly into it.

"Don't give me that look." Connie folded her arms, but he couldn't tell.

"Mm? What look?" he tried to play coy.

"So you were able to pass a few mirrors without bumping into one, big deal." there was a slight chuckle trying to reach her voice.

"Oh, I have? Why, I haven't even noticed." he continued to play coy.

"You can't tell, but I'm SO rolling my eyes at you right now."

This earned a chuckle out of Steven, breaking him out of character.

He turned his head around. "Well, I _have_ done this a lot of times." he said. "So I guess you can say I'm use to it." _SMACK_ "Owww." he whined, holding his cheek. Now it was Connie's turn to hold in a laugh, but unlike Steven, she couldn't hold in hers, bursting out laughing.

"Hey, no fair. You distracted me."

"Yeah, yeah. Excuses, excuses."

"Really! This maze is SO easy. Why, perhaps I could navigate it with my eyes closed."

"Mm, that doesn't sound like a good idea.."

"Think I can't do it?"

"Mm, nope. But also, I don't want you getting lost."

"Connie, I'm a werewolf. I can easily just sniff you out. So I can find you."

"You're not really doing this.."

Steven closed his eyes.

"Aaaand, he's really doing this.."

Steven kept his arms in front of them as he very cautiously patted around the mirrors, his eyes clenched tightly. "Now this is an easy game that I can win."

"Okay, I'm going the other way." he heard Connie say to him.

"Okay!" he shouted. "Ooops!"

"Hey!" said a male voice in surprise.

"Sorry! Kinda forgot there were other people here too. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Can't open my eyes." said Steven as he continued to pat and touch the guy as he went around him, the guy protesting. 

Then he finally touched glass and continued his way... his way where exactly? Was he just going to go to the end and then come back to get Connie? What if she makes it out before him and he ends up getting lost without her scent? But the again, he could still sniff out a faint scent.. It's not like it'll fade a lot within 30 minutes or an hour..

He continued his walk as did Connie. She made a turn and found herself in another circle full of mirrors. A young boy was in all of them. She turned around _as if that was going to help.._ More mirrors of a random little boy in the picture. He started to walk towards her_ or at least that's what it looked like._"Hey." she gave him a warning. And then she thought.. Why was she so on edge? Because she was in a room full of mirrors in the dim room with only the neon lights around her? But she can see in the dark.. and they were just mirrors.. Or maybe because she was kinda afraid that she would get lost with a total stranger.. But Steven said that he would be able to sniff her out. And this stranger was just a little kid. _You have to look out for kids too._ Connie ignored that thought. He was probably just lost.

The boy continued to walk towards her. "Hey, are you lost?" she asked him. He didn't say anything. His mouth a thin line as he walked up slowly towards her, his eyes staring right into her. Or her floating clothes? Was he in a place where he could actually _see_ her or was he following the reflections of her clothes from the mirrors? Either way, he seemed to be staring straight at her with hypnotized eyes.

She started feeling creeped out. He didn't answer her.. Maybe he doesn't understand English? There seemed to be a few tourists at the park. She waved to him instead. He continued his steady, slow pace, not waving back. _Okay, don't freak out Connie. He's JUST a little kid.. And who knows, maybe his parents told him not to talk to strangers.. And handshaking was a form of communication. Maybe he was just obeying their rules.._ Well, if she can't talk to him then.. "Hey! Did anyone leave a little kid here!" she shouted.

That got the little boy to stop in his tracks, his mouth open in surprise. He started looking around, then, he just fled. He just ran just like that and disappeared from the reflections of the mirrors.

Connie would've been lying if she said she didn't feel just the slightest fear from what just happened.. But, she kept her composure, continuing her walk.. her walk where? Was she supposed to meet Steven at the exit? Darn.. they should've thought this through..

After only five minutes walking along side the mirrors and continuously walking into them with her arms and possibly also going back to the same spots she was in (she couldn't quite tell), Connie decided that that was enough alone time in the maze. She called out to the cute little werewolf. "Steven?"

Steven heard Connie's voice very far away from him. "Connie?" he felt around for more mirrors. "You're at the exit?" 

"No." she said. "But I think I'm lost."

A few seconds passed and she didn't hear from him. "Steven?"

"Heh heh." he gave a humorless chuckle. "You want to know what's funny?...... I.....think I'm lost too..." he said. "Okay, I'm done. I lost. I'm opening my eyes now." He opened his eyes and shape shifted them. Then he shape shifted his ears and his nose and began sniffing the air. "Okay Connie. I'm keeping a sharp eye, ear and nose out for you. And" he sniffed the air some more. "I already got your scent. I'm coming." He jogged and instantly regretted it, slamming snoot first into the mirror, which hurt twice as much than him hitting his human nose. "Owowowowowow!" he wiggled his nose as he rubbed it. "Gotta be more careful." he said to himself. He sniffed the air again, carefully gliding his hands across the mirrors.

Connie was planning on waiting, until she saw two pairs of glowing eyes. _Werewolf eyes_do _glow in the dark, right?_"Steven, is that you?" she took a step and then stopped. Something didn't feel right.. And then she caught it. That same smell from that morning before Buck and the others had broke into her house _and_ it was the same scent from when she was walking to Beach City, right before Sadie had followed her and interrupted her patrol.

"It's you again." Connie hissed out. "Who are you? Why are you following me?"

The figure was wearing all black, as it loomed taller than Connie, or at least from the mirrors it did. It retreated a few steps, not saying anything.

"Who are you!" Connie yelled out.

"Connie?" Steven sounded worried. "What's going on? Who are you talking to?" 

Connie looked around swiftly, eyeing every mirror and keeping a lookout for any sudden movements. "Someone's here with us." Connie narrowed her eyes. 

"Well of course someone is, silly! We're not the _only_ ones here." he chuckled.

"No, that's not what I-" she smacked her teeth. "Steven, do you smell the ocean?"

"Mmm.." he sniffed the air with his snoot. "No." he sniffed the air. "Nope. Not even a lingerance of it. Umm.. I think I used that word correctly?"

Connie looked around. The figure was gone. She sniffed the air. She didn't smell the ocean either.. Weird.. Even after a person leaves, you can still catch their scent. But in this case? It was as if nothing was even there.. Maybe she was imagining it? Or perhaps it was an effect of the mirror house? ..Maybe it was someone playing tricks and they just know how to burry their scent?

".. nie, is something wrong?" worry in his voice.

She'd spaced out for a few moments. "Huh? What was that?"

"Is.. something wrong?"

"I'm..Not quit sure. I don't know." she wanted to steer away from the whole ordeal. She didn't want the poor werewolf to worry. And who knows, maybe her mind _was_ playing tricks on her with all of the mirrors and the neon lights all around. Perhaps they obscured her vision a bit. "It's nothing." she shook her head, even though he wasn't there to see her. "It was probably just the lights reflecting off the mirrors."

"Oh, fewf." Steven blew a sigh of relief. "I thought you'd come across Onion's gang." said Steven, still feeling around the mirrors. "One of his friend's smell like the sea. I thought you were talking about him when you said 'the ocean'."

"Who's gang?"

"Onion's. He and his friends are always playing pranks on the townies. And some of them can get pretty...Out of hand" he shuttered. "My toenails are still growing back from that declawing prank.." he strained out.

"Ow.. sounds painful."

"It was." Steven shivered at the painful memories. "That's why I got nervous. I thought that we might've ran into them."

Connie thought about the little boy that she'd seen earlier. By any chance.. does one of them have blond hair? Like, in a swoof, dollop kind of hairstyle?" 

Steven gasped. Nervousness in his voice. "Was he wearing red pants, and a white shirt with a blue jacket tied around his neck?!"

"Yeah, that sounds about right."

"Oh no! We need to get out of here! If Onion's here then his friends are usually close by!" Steven started fumbling through the mirrors and sniffing the air more to stay on Connie's scent. He bumped into a few mirrors in his rush. His eyes watered through the pain in his snoot. "We definitely have to get out of here. They're probably plotting something as we speak! Connie! I can't take another declawing prank!"

"Okay, okay." she tried to calm him down. "We'll be out of here in no time. You sound pretty close by now." she tried to comfort him.

Steven looked around, still tracing his hands over the mirrors as he continued to sniff the air. 

A few moments of bumping into mirrors and going back and forth and around the mirrors and.. after Connie's scent got further away indicating that he was actually moving _away_ from her, he finally threw in the town and shape shifted his snoot back into a nose and shape shifted his eyes and ears back. He sighed and fell back on one of the mirrors, sliding down on his butt. "Connie?"

"Yeah, Steven?"

"... I.... Can't find you..." 

Connie didn't dare rub it in his face, even if he did claim so much that he could oh so easily find the exit, then find her. Or was it just finding the exit? They still never established what he was supposed to do..

She took the pager out of her pocket. "Press the button?" she asked.

He nodded in defeat. "Yeah.."

They pressed the GPS help button on their pagers and two minutes later, a young teenager came to rescue them one by one. 

"Heh.. Found you Connie." Steven joked as he walked alongside the teen.

"With his help of course." she smiled slyly at the werewolf. She got up and joined the group. The teen had also retrieved two other kids.


	20. Chapter Twenty

The group exited the mirror room and were hit with the smell of fast food.

"Ooooo! This is ALSO new!" Steven bounced. "They actually put in a restaurant!" he cheered.

The teen gestured for their pagers and they handed it to him. Then the group dispersed, except for Steven and Connie. "Are you hungry?" he asked her. "We haven't eaten since before we even got here."

"Mmm.. Yeah, I could go for something small." she turned around to see the menu in the back of the restaurant. Flashbacks of the disgusting meal from Burgers N Burgers entered her mind and she frowned. "I just hope they have something edible."

"Yeah, I hope so too." 

The two teens walked up to the long line and waited, passing the time with Steven telling her other rides they could get on and telling her how the teen at the cashier reminded him of his best friend.

Then they were finally to the front and were greeted by a small boy with dark brown hair wearing a yellow shirt with a white name tag on it.

The boy was putting a roll of receipt paper in the machine. "Good Evening and welcome to" he looked up after closing the receipt paper machine. "Steven?! Hey! What are you doing here?!" 

"Jeff!!! Aw MAN, I had a feeling that was you!! Didn't I Connie?" he turned to her for support.

Connie gave him a nod. "Yeah, he said you looked like his best friend Jeff." 

_Wow.. she's really pretty.._ Jeff thought. And he felt his face heat up.

"See?! See?! I told you!" Steven shouted. "So, when did you start working here?"

Jeff was about to answer him until he was cut off by an over enthusiastic Steven. "OH! Wait, wait, wait! Where are my manners.." he shook his head smiling. "This is Connie."

The girl waved and Jeff waved back, the blush still eminent on his face.

"So, when did you start working here?" Steven asked again.

Jeff was so busy looking at Connie, he almost missed Steven's question. "Huh? Oh, um.. only about two weeks ago. I didn't get to telling Pee Dee yet. Or you yet. Um, I guess until now." his gaze went back to Connie. The girl looking away. _Why is he staring at me? _

"Eh, don't sweat it Jeff. We all know how busy you've been."

"Yeah." he said. "But it would've been nice to hang out with you two. You know, I've been working out over the summer, so I've been trying to find an excuse to show off the beach bod." he flexed, cutting his eye at Connie. She didn't seem to notice.. or.. care? 

Then Steven flexed his own non muscular , chubby arm. "Yeah, I've been working out too. You just can't tell because it's under all this muscle protection." 

Connie chuckled at that. "Muscle protection?"

"Yeah, check it out." he held out his arm, completely oblivios to Jeff's sad stare. Connie squeezed the flab, er "muscle protector". "Ah, I see." she gave him a half lidded smile.

Jeff cleared his throat, a bit embarrassed at the interaction between them. Connie stopped and the two looked back at Jeff. 

"Coming down with something?" Steven asked. 

"No." Jeff shook his head. "So..When did you two meet?" he turned to Connie. "This is my first time seeing you."

"We met yesterday." Steven smiled.

"Yeah, I'm kinda new to this area of Beach City."

"That's cool." Then his smile dropped a bit. "Too bad I couldn't show you around."

"Oh? Uh..?" Connie looked at him confused. "Yeah, that's okay. Steven has been a great tour guide so far. He's shown me quite a bit in the car ride over here and we're having a really great time here." _Was she blushing? No.. of course she wasn't blushing, just because she was going over her time with Steven..Did Jeff notice the blush? ~If she even _ was_ blushing, that is..~_

"Oh! Uh, that's great. Steven's a really great guy to show you around and stuff." he said honestly. _He really is.._ Connie thought. "BUT, uh..if you _DO_ need another tour guide, I would be glad to show you more of the city!" he offered. His cheeks felt so hot. His blush deepened.

Connie was about to reject his offer kindly when Steven jumped in. "Yeah, that's not a bad idea! You know SO many cool places! Ooooo!! Like that Strawberry Field!"

""The Strawberry Field?"

"Yeah. I found it while trying to find another place to play soccer with the guys. It's this place where that's FULL of strawberry trees and bushes. It's a pretty nice place. Especially in the spring when they start to bloom again. " then he gave her a look, putting his elbow on the counter and leaning in towards her. "They're really pretty." he looked into her eyes.

_Ah, I see what you're doing now.._"Oh.." Connie leaned back. "Well, maybe _Steven_ and I could go check it out one day."

"Nonsense, Connie. All THREE of us could go there!" he cheered.

"Or maybe just the two of us." Jeff suggested.

"Or maybe just the two of you!" Steven cheered more, still oblivios with Jeff's interaction with Connie.

"Definitely." Jeff nodded. "So, um.. Is it just you two or is Pee Dee here too?" he looked around the area, glancing over the line of customers who were getting irritated at the long interaction.

"Nope, we came with Buck, Jenny, Kiki and Sour Cream too! But we kinda split up.. although we did play bumper cars together!" Then he thought of their suggestions on going on scary rides and how Connie saved him from that ordeal. "But then.. we split up again." then he narrowed his eyes. "And Pee Dee couldn't make it because stupid Kevin skipped work and he had to fill in for him."

"Wow.. again? I'm surprised that he still has his job."

"Mr. Fryman keeps giving him chances..And the guy's actually here too! He skipped work just to come here!"

"Really? No way!" Jeff sighed. " Well, I guess we'll see what Mr. Fryman does next. I mean, he is too kind of a guy to let him go.. It just..kinda sucks to have Kevin just treat him like that."

Two people got out of line, but not before giving them dirty looks. They marched out the building, going to a nearby hamburger stand.

One person looked at them and then did the same thing, leaving the line to go to the nearest burger place that they can actually _order_ from.

"Well. Anyway. Maybe he could go with you next time." then he looked at Connie again. " Maybe we all can." he smirked. "And speaking of Pee Dee, there's this cool place in Forks that he, Steven and I go to. That place has a lot of trees that make this beautiful forest. It rains there majority of the time and when the sun _ is_ out, there's a looot of shade from the trees so you don't have to worry about the sun." then he wiggled his eyebrows. "You and I should definitely check it out sometime!" the boy suggested.

"Mmmm.. no.." Connie declined. _ I see what you're doing.. And I'm not interested._

"Oh, what, Connie?! But that place is SO cool! AND that place is practically FILLED with nothing BUT vampires and werewolves!!! It's amazing!!! Oooo!! And they have this cool waterfall too!!" 

"Hey, remember when you, Pee Dee and I went swimming deep down in the water and I found a whole seafloor full of clams! "

"Do I!" Steven shouted. He turned to Connie. "ALL of them were opened and they were ALL filled with these huge, shiny, pretty pearls! And it was in the middle of the day so the sun just reflected off of them and they were all sparkly! Man, I don't know how you happened to come across them." 

"Yeahh, what can I say." he gave what Connie thought was a very smug shoulder shrug. Then he tilted his head to the side to her, brushing his hair back in one swipe back. "Seems like I always come across beauties." he looked at her. The two boys started laughing, Steven, still utterly oblivious to Jeff's flirting with Connie. "That's so true! Jeff is ALWAYS finding pretty things!"

"Oh, BROTHER! Can you two please ORDER ALREADY!?! We've been waiting here for fifteen minutes!!!!" 

"Oh, whoops!" said a startled Steven. He turned to Connie. "Didn't think we took _that_ long." then he turned back to the line of angry people behind him. "Sorry guys!"

The line mumbled their own protests at the two in line.

Connie looked at the menu above Jeff's head. "Good news, Steven!" she pointed to the menu. "Looks like their menu is vampire and werewolf friendly!"

"Woohoo!!" he pumped his fists into the air.

"So, what can I get you two?" he asked , his hand hovering above the touchscreen of the register.

"Mmmm... I think I'm feeling the.. four meat special."

"Alrighty." Jeff was about to put it in the system until Connie spoke up. "Steven, are you sure about getting that?"

"Huh? Oh right!" he snapped his fingers. "Thanks for reminding me Connie. And a large order of fries!" he cheesed.

"No, I meant.. Are you sure you want to get the four meat special? You don't think it's going to be too heavy for your stomach?"

"Neh." he pat his stomach. "My stomach is as strong as steel. I can easily digest all of that."

"Mm.. If you say so..."

Jeff pressed a few buttons on the screen, then looked up at Connie. "And what would you like, love?"_ Eww...He called me that.._ "I'm just going to get the number one. Just the sandwich and a drink."

"And what's the drink?"

"I'll just get cow blood since.. you don't have any goat blood, right?"

"No, yeah, we do."

"What?! No way! That's like, SO hard to come by! I'll take that!" she smiled. 

"Wow.. you really have nice fangs." he breathed out.

"Oh.. uh.." her expression dropped. "Thanks."

Steven nodded. "I agree." Then he took out his wallet.

Jeff waved his hand. "Neh, don't worry about it. This one's on the house." he winked at Connie and she looked away. Steven didn't think much of the wink. "Oh, okay! Thanks, Jeff!" he put the wallet back in his pocket.

Jeff typed in a few more keys on the touchpad before pressing his thumb on the scanner on the bottom of the register. 

"That's so cool." Steven watched as the receipt paper came out.

"Yeah." Jeff tore the receipt paper from the machine and wrote something on it. "We don't have the cards anymore." He slid the paper into the register. "Well, you two can just wait over there and listen out for your number which is.." then he remembered. "Oh shoot. I put the receipt in the register." there was a groan of protest from an angry customer behind them. The boy pushed in a few keys, scanned his thumb and the cashier pushed open. He looked at the receipt. "1312." he closed the register back.

"Awesome. Thanks again, Jeff!" Steven waved to him as he and Connie stepped to the side. Jeff waved back to him. "Nice talking to ya, Steven. And see ya around, Connie." he smiled at her. She gave him a wave back, keeping it simple.

Just a couple minutes later, another employee had called out their number, holding one big bag in one hand and a small bag in the other. Steven grabbed the bags from the lady and and thanked the lady before walking back to Connie. "So, where are we going to sit?"

"Hmmm.." Connie looked around and spotted an empty table over by the window. "How about we sit over there." she pointed to the table.

"Sure."

The two sat down and Steven ripped open his bag immediately to reveal a white box. He popped open the taps and the top sprung open, revealing the four different raw meats stacked on top of each other. Goat, lamp, beef and then chicken, all doused in blood. He licked his lips and pulled a stringy piece of goat off the stack and started chowing on it.

Connie shook her head, smiling. "Werewolves.."

"Hm?" Steven looked up, his cheeks already full of goat and his hand already hovering by his mouth with a piece of beef.

Connie chuckled. "Nothing." and she unfolded the top of her bag and took out the small brown box. She popped the sides open picked up the raw burger. She took a bite out of it, savoring the flavors. She took another bite and chewed it.

She swallowed. "Wow, this burger is delicious."

"MHM!" Steven nodded, not able to talk with his mouth full of all four of the meats. He used his canines to crush the rest of the food and swallowed a few times. "You should also try the fries!"

"Neh.. I think I'll pass."

"Are you sure you don't want any?" he waved a fry in the air.

"Yeah, I'm sure. I don't eat stuff like that. Too.. human-y."

"These aren't your usual human fries. Though I like them too." he popped one in his mouth, chewed and swallowed. "These aren't even potatoes. They're actually gutted chicken livers, made to look like fries."

"And it's not even fried?" she looked at the fries. It sure looked like they were.

Steven shook his head. "Nope. They dry them out, then put some kind of glaze covering on them. That's what gives the them that fried look." he picked up a few more fries. "Also, the glazing tastes REALLY good." 

"Oh. Okay." she bit into her burger again.

"So.. would you like to try them out?" he started pushing the tray towards her.

She swallowed and put her burger back in the box. "Suuuure." she picked up a fry. "Are there any dipping sauces? This would go great with some kind of meat chunks ketchup." 

"No. I asked the same question and the lady said that there are no additions or substitutions." 

"Are you kidding me? Ha! This place is all talk! You can't have fries without ketchup." 

Steven shrugged and smiled into his food as he took a few bites of beef, staring at Connie as she raised the fry up to her face. 

She bit into it and was hit with a fresh taste of spices and flavor. And something else she noticed too. She gasped, looking at the plate of fries. " The KETCHUP.... is IN_SIDE_ the FRIES?!?!"

"Heh." Steven smirked.

.........

The two took their time eating and talking. Nearly fifteen minutes later, Jeff was walking up to their table. 

"Hey! Hey, Connie! Look at me!" Steven put two French fries in his nose and crossed his eyes, sticking his tongue out."

Connie laughed.

Steven laughed a nasally laugh and he shape shifted his tongue to wrap it around each fry, pulling the first one into his mouth then the second one.

"Ewwwww." Connie chuckled. 

"Hey, how's everything over here?" Jeff asked them once he reached the table.

"Everything's great!" "Pretty good." Steven and Connie said to him.

"Great!" then the boy turned to Connie. "I wanted to hurry and catch you two before you left." he told her, then he pulled out a piece of laminated paper with a picture of a map of Eriador. Connie looked at the pamphlet. "Would you, by any chance..want to go to The Shire with me? Not sure if you're familiar with the place or not." _she wasn't but she didn't bother telling him that_ "but I know some great places around Rhovanian and I thought I could show you around.. Or perhaps go to the Misty Mountains or even go up the other way and check out the Blue Mountains." 

_No way.._Steven dropped the food from his hands. Jeff ONLY talked about going to The Shire when he's trying to score a date with a girl.. Everything clicked together now. Jeff showing off his muscles, Jeff talking about going to Strawberry Fields, Jeff suggesting to go to Funland with her, Jeff complimenting her and all of Jeff's other remarks to her. _He's flirting with Connie._

His face dropped to a narrow eyed glare as he watched the boy try to treat Connie to a nice hike around the mountains. _What does he think he's doing?! -No wait, he doesn't know that you like her, Steven... But I'm here with her alone, so he SHOULD expect something. He should've asked!! ...But Jeff is always like that. You know how flirtatious he can be around certain girls and Connie is no exception.... But that's MY Connie... No, not really. Not at all. You two aren't together, so Jeff could easily be her husband... _

"..so, what do you say, Connie?" the boy leaned in, smiling.

Connie leaned back and turned her head away from the boy, allowing her to see Steven's torn expression. "Steven?.. Are you okay?" he looked conflicted. His expression changing from anger to sadness to something of hurt then back to sadness, then back to anger. 

_Jeff's your best friend! You know he wouldn't talk to her if he new you had a huge, deep, undying likeness for her... No _ They watched as Steven shook his head of the former though. _NO! It doesn't matter.. Jeff should've known.. And he should stay away from her. She's MINE.. and ONLY mine!! And NO ONE else's.. -And I'll fight to protect what's mine.._

"Steven?" Connie said his name again. 

The two teens from across the table stared at Steven's red eyes. A low, threatening growl coming from the predator. 

Jeff looked behind him. "Is Kevin here?" he looked around.

Steven's eyes followed Jeff and Connie noticed it. "Steven, hey, Steven?" she tried to hurry and snap him out of his trance.

"No, he's not here." Jeff turned back around. "Hey, what's wrong with you, buddy?" Jeff reached out with his hand and Steven opened his mouth and Connie quickly pulled Jeff's hand back. A good thing to. Otherwise, if he'd stretched his hand out just a bit further, Jeff definitely would've lost a hand.

"Steven, you need to calm down, now." Connie warned him.

"I've never seen him like this before." said Jeff. He took a few steps forward towards Steven. The growling only got louder, as he bared his sharp teeth. His nails digged into the table _Connie's mine.. ONLY mine.. She's ALL mine!! EVERYONE must stay away from her or else.._ A snarl left his mouth as he opened it more.

People in the building started to look at them. Jeff backed up, keeping his eyes on Steven. "I.. have no clue what's going on with him.. I've never seem him like this. Not even during a full moon." he whispered to Connie.

_Huh.. So that's real? _ She took a mental note to ask Steven about that.. when he's_ not_ in some kind of animalistic trance.. Connie got up, but his glare was still fixated on Jeff only. She took her time cautiously walking towards him. "Steven."

"Jeff! What are you doing over there! Get back here and get on this register!" yelled a lady from the counter.

"Yes ma'am!" he turned to Steven. "I really hope that he'll be okay.." then he turned back to Connie. "Well, I have to go. But please, think about it." Connie watched as Steven eyed Jeff as the boy folded the paper and slid the it over towards Connie.

Steven jumped up, the chair falling back. He took a few steps towards Jeff and Connie jumped in front of him, placing her hands on his chest to stop him. His body was extremely hot to the touch. "Jeff, I think it's time for Steven and I to leave."

"Are you sure? This looks like it could be something more serious. Maybe..I should call for someone? A..Werewolf specialist?"

"In the middle of an amusement park, Jeff?..Really?"

The boy gave a helpless shrug. "Mmm, maybe there's one out here?"

Connie shook her head. "No, I don't it's anything serious. I just think that"-_he got extremely protective and now he wants to tear you to shreds and I think that we should leave right now before does just that._\- "he needs some fresh air. Come on Steven." she coaxed him, patting his chest and pulling his arm towards the exit of the building. His body turned towards the exit and the snarl was gone but his neck was still turned to Jeff.

"Oh.. okay." Jeff frowned. He glanced back at Steven before looking back at Connie. "Well, it sure was nice meeting you Connie." he forced a nervous smile and waved.

"Yeah, uh.. It was nice meeting you too." she continued to pull Steven away and towards the door, purposely leaving the folded letter on the table.

The two were almost by the doors. "Steven, what the heck was that back there?!" she whisper shouted in his ear.

The crowd watched as vampire and werewolf walked towards the exit. One person mad a mistake and looked at Steven, the boy snapping his eyes back at him to give him a ferocious glare and the guy nearly chocked on his burger. He darted his eyes back towards his food, not daring to look Steven's way again.

"Hey, hey Connie!" Jeff was yelling behind him. He was waving the piece of paper in his hand. "Wait up! You forgot this!" 

_And JUST as Steven was beginning to calm down.._

Steven turned around and let out a spine chilling bark that immediately stopped Jeff in his tracks. He started snarling again as saliva dropped from his canines. 

"Uhg, Jeff, just, just keep the paper! We have to go." she tugged on Steven's arm and noticed that her eyes were now at chest level, instead of at forehead level. 

She pulled on his elbow, using her strength to pull him towards the door.

The boy looked hurt. "Oh.. okay then." he put the paper back in his pocket and turned around, walking back towards the counter, still looking back. He nearly bumped into a guy that was holding his tray full of food. "Hey, watch where you going!" "S, sorry sir."

The two finally exited the building and one person sitting at a table by the windows scoffed as he unwrapped his burger. "Pffft, werewolves and their creepy, wolfy claims.." he took a bite out of his rare burger.

....

Connie continued to pull Steven away, even though they were now out of sight of the place. Steven had shrunk back down to his normal size and he wasn't snarling or growling anymore.. But his predator eyes were still there, but it wasn't as ferocious. Now he just looked like a very angry boy who had a rock in his shoe.

Connie decided to try again to get through to him. "..Steven?"

_Steven, what had gotten into you back there?! ..Jeff deserved it! He's fortunate that I didn't attack him! ...But you've made a scene and you've probably scared Connie. You know that's not the kind of person you are... Technically that _is _the kind of person that I am.. Something just came up from that wolf side.. Something that I didn't know I had..... Well you better not act like that again!!.....But why did I act like that just now? Jeff is my best friend and I'm the good guy. I'm a bubbly, happy go lucky teen who's the voice of reason. The cinnamon roll of the group. I'm suppose to be as harmless as a butterfly and as gentle as a ..What...What _was_ that back there.. Why did I do that?.. What..?-_ "...Steven?" he heard Connie through his tug of war thoughts. "Hm?" he looked at her. 

"Are.. you feeling any better?" she was still grabbing on to his arm hard.

"I.." his eyes shape shifted back into those gentle, dark brown eyes that Connie loved looking at. "I don't know what came over me.." he finally whispered to her.

Connie loosened her grip just ever so slightly. "I'm just glad you're back." she breathed out. Then she looked at him, right in his eyes. "But.. what had happened back there.. It was like.. you were a different person. It was quite ..alarming.."

"I didn't mean to scare you Connie.." _Oh no! I blew it! Stupid, stupid me! Now she's going to leave me forever! And I'm going to blame myself for the rest of my life for not being a better person to her! And she's going to find someone else and.. and I'm going to die of guilt and heartbreak!_ A high pitched, whistling whine came from Steven. His face twisted into a frown as he continued to whine in shame.

Connie pulled him closer, rubbing his back. "It's okay, Steven. It's okay." the boy hung his head low, staring away from Connie and at the ground.

"Come on, bring it in." She pushed his head to lean on her shoulder and she started caressing his hair. "It's okay.." she soothed him. The boy continued his whine as they walked to a nearby bench. She sat him down and he continued to lay his head on his shoulder as she continued to massage the side of his head. "Shh.. shh.." she soothed him. "It's not like anyone got hurt." she reminded him. "You.. just have to be a bit more careful with, uh... Your instincts?"

More shame came over Steven and he whined more. "Aw, come on Steven." she leaned her head on his. "Don't be like this." she went from massaging his tempe to trailing her hands up to scratch the top of his head.

A few moments of gentle talking to him and a few head rubs and soothing shushes and he stopped whining. She kept her head on his as she continued to scratch his hair, with the other hand now rubbing the side of his face. 

"I'm so sorry, Connie." he said in her shoulder.

"I forgive you, Steven.. It's okay." she said in his ear.

The boy leaned up slowly, leaving a damp tear stained spot on Connie's dress.

He sniffed. _I hope that never happens again.._

"Feeling any better?" she asked and she noticed that she was still scratching his head and she slowly pulled away. _Perhaps I've scratched his head enough already and he needs a bit of space.._

"A little." he said hoarsely. He stared down at his hands in his lap.

They sat there in silence before Connie spoke back up. "Do you.. want to continue hanging out? Or.." she trailer off.

"Y, yeah.." he continued to look at his hands. "I just.. didn't know if you still wanted to.."

Connie leaned forward in the bench to get a good look at Steven. "Of course I still do, silly! We still have three more hours of nonstop fun!" 

Steven looked over at Connie's heartwarming, smiling face. Heat started rising in Steven's chest and a sad smile came across his face. "That's great to hear."

Connie jumped off of the bench and pulled him off the bench by his hands. "So, what are we waiting for?" she smiled.

The heat in his chest ignited more and more and a genuine smile spread across his face. "You know." he said. "We still haven't hit the water rides yet." 

"Yeahah!" Connie jumped. "Oh wait." she let go of his hands. "We just ate.. "

Steven titled his head. "And?"

"Well, you know." she said.

He shook his head.

"That old saying about not swimming after you eat. You have to wait like, two hours or something."

"I've never heard of that before. Also, I've ate and went swimming afterwards many times and nothing has ever happened to me."

"Maybe werewolves don't count? Still, I don't want to take that chance." 

"Okay. We can just go later." he smiled. Then he looked around. "Hmmm.. now what are we going to do? Oh!" he looked at a small area with a tent up ahead. "That's something that we can do!" he pointed.

"What's that?" Connie asked.

"An art studio!" he took her by the arm. The two ran towards the area. Moms and professionals and best friends were painting each other's faces underneath of the tent. Two big lamps lit up the area of the tent. "We can paint each other's faces!" he squealed.

"Oh, I thought we were going to look at landscape paintings." she frowned a bit. ".. I'm a horrible artist.."

"Connie, you don't _have_ to be a good artist to face paint. Just draw anything. A flower, a cloud, the sun." he listed.

"Oh.. I don't know.. I don't want you to look ridiculous." 

"And what's wrong with being ridiculous?" he chuckled. "Well if you can't laugh at yourself."

"Mm.. Well, okay then." And the two walked underneath of the tent. Tables of various paints laid all around the area. And the smell of chalk and chemically made scented paints and oil pencils filled the air, even with the early morning air wafting through the layers of the tent. 

"Looks like there's nowhere else left to sit." Connie looked around.

"Mm, that's fine. We can just stand over here." he walked towards a corner of the tent right next to paintings that little kids had done over the course of the day. Some were clothes pinned to the cloth of the tent, while the rest were put on a table to showcase.

Connie joined him. "So, who's going first?" she asked him.

"How about you go first?"

"Mmm.." she shrunk in on herself.

"Don't worry, Connie. I know that whatever you paint will look amazing and cute." _Just like you.._ They both thought, though neither of them said it out loud.

"Okay.." she looked at all of her options on the table. So many paint colors and painting pencils.. She hovered her hand over the paints before picking up a blue colored pencil. She laid her hand on his face and stopped, still thinking about what she was going to draw. Then she picked up the pencil and started drawing on his cheek. Steven chuckled at the soft pokes of the pencil. "Steven, stop moving."

"But it tickles." he chuckled some more.

"But you're messing up my cloud." she tried to steady her hand as she drew a few curves of her clouds.

Steven snorted, trying to hold in his laughs.

Then Connie put the pencil down and picked up a yellow pencil, drawing on the same cheek as she drew the son, right by his nose. Then she picked up an orange pencil and drew open triangles around the yellow circle for the outline of the sun. She put the two pencils down and picked up a paint brush and dipped it in the green paint. She pressed the soft brush right below his cheek, just under the clouds.

Steven snorted again, until he couldn't hold in his chuckle. "Teeheehehee. That tickles even more." the movement of his laughter made Connie's finger tilt the brush up, messing up the horizontal line she was making for the grass.

"Oh, Steven." she huffed. "You made me mess up."

"Oops, sorry Connie.."

She sighed. "I'll just have to improvise." then she thought a bit. She dipped the paint brush in an already tainted water cup and pressed it on a damp napkin." I'll just make that part into an ant hill." she pinched the brush to make it thinner and she dipped the brush in the brown paint. "Okay, you have to try to stay still this time." she held his jaw gently, tilting it to the right. "Okay." he stifled a giggle. She carefully painted the green line with brown paint, mixing the two colors together and rounding it out to make a small ant hill. Steven continued to laugh, but her gentle grip on his chin made it easier for his head to keep still. "There." she placed the paint brush back in the cup. 

"Ooooo!! I can't WAIT to see it!" he was about to pick up a hand mirror that was right beside them on a different table. 

"No, not yet." she stopped him. "I have to do the other side." she knew exactly what she wanted to draw already. She picked up the paint brush, dried it off and dipped it in green paint. Then she brought it up to Steven's moving cheek, painting the bottom of it. Then she dipped the brush back into the green paint and made some up strokes, for the stem of the flowers. 

She set the brush down and picked up a brush that already had a pit of yellow on it. She held Steven's jaw again, this time, being careful to not smudge the paint and on a few of the stems, she carefully drew petals around it, leaving a small spot in the middle untouched. Then she drew yellow staminal columns above the rest of the green stems. She set the brush down and picked up another one and dipped it in dark pink paint. She drew petals around the yellow staminal columns and left the inside of the petals blank. Then she went back to the yellow flowers and filled in the blank space with pink. She set the brush down and picked up a brush with a finer brush to it and dipped it in darl pink paint and started dotting the top of the staminal columns for the stigma pads and pollen sacs. Then she set the brush down to pink another one up. She dipped it in white paint and filled in the blank space of the pink petals, painting the middle white.

Connie stuck her tongue out in concentration, her tongue touching her fang as she drew the flowers accordingly.

Steven thought that was incredibly adorable and he felt himself wanting to smile.

"Nooo moving~." she said with her tongue still out. "I'm almost done."

She poked his cheek a few more times before putting the last brush down.Then she let out a breath and leaned back to look at her work. A _beautiful_ smile came across her face. "I'm done." she said. "It turned out better than I thought."

Steven could barely contain his excitement. "So I can take a look now, right?!" he bounced.

"Yes." she chuckled.

Steven took no time in swiping the mirror off the table to look at his new look. He gasped and then a squeal escaped his mouth. "I looove iiiit!!" he cooed.

"Yeah?"

He looked at Connie. "Definitely! I don't know why you don't give yourself enough credit. This looks great! Why, I look like a canvas! Sell me to a museum!" he posed and Connie laughed with him. "Neh, I'm not that good. But I'm glad you like it. The flowers are supposed to be Hibiscus flowers too, by the way."

"Yup, I know." he nodded. "My mom LOVES Hibiscus flowers. AND Roses." 

"Really?"

"Yeah! She plants them outside the house. Those are her favorites."

"Wow." said Connie. "How odd. They're my favorites too." she showed her dress with the roses on it. Steven nodded. "Yeah, I noticed the roses! I thought it was pretty cool and pretty when I saw it."

"Yeah, well.." Connie blushed, not finishing her sentence. Then she changed the subject. "So I guess it's your turn now."

"Oh! Y, yeah!" he smiled. "Hmmm.. now let me see.." he looked at the paints on the table. "I know!" he dipped one hand in brown paint and the other in rust colored paint. "I'll make you into a wolf!" he chuckled. And he took both hands and started painting ALL around Connie's face, dragging his fingers outward to make stripe-like fur. The paint was cool on her face. 

Then he dipped one hand each in the dirt brown water cup and he dried them off before dipping each hand in its opposite colors, dipping the first hand in rust colored paint and the other hand in brown paint. He brought his hands up and started mixing the brown with the red on one side and the red with the brown on the other side. Then he cleaned both hands off again and dipped one hand in the black paint and pained her nose. He looked up from his work and tilted his head. "Hmmmm..." he scratched his face forehead, leaving three little smudge marks near his eye brow. "I think I'm missing something.. OH!" he was about to face palm himself before Connie grabbed his arm. "Steven, your paint!"

"UH oh. That would've been bad, heehee. Thanks!" he turned to the paint and dipped the same hand in black paint again. "I forgot the whiskers!" he traced four vertical lines across each side of her nose. Then he took a few steps back. "AAAAAAAAAND DONE!!" he shouted. Then he took a better look and his smile dropped slightly. "Aw man.. I think I made you look more like a cat than a wolf.. See?" he held up the mirror and saw the paint and her white sun hat floating in the mirror. "Oh... Yeah.." he berated himself for forgetting already about the whole "no relfection" thing. "I kinda forgot."

"It's okay, Steven." she looked at the painting. "And the painting looks pretty cool. You really know how to mix your colors.

"Oh well.." he said bashfully, kicking his feet. "I try.." then he cleared his throat. "So, now that we have our faces painted, wanna continue on with some more rides?" 

"Definitely!"

"Great! I know JUST the ride to get on next!" Steven dipped his hand in the water to clean it off, then he dried it. "Alright! Let's go!" he pumped a fist in the air.


	21. Chapter 21

"Go Sour Cream, Go!!" Kiki cheered him on as the gargoyle tread through the water towards the wall. Two teens, an ogre and a bull were swimming towards him. Sour Cream held the water balloon close to his chest. Two other teens, a werewolf on top of the shoulders of a goblin were right beside Buck and Jenny to deflect any shots coming to them. 

"You're almost there, Sour Cream! Give us that last point!" Jenny shouted on Buck's shoulders. Buck held onto her leg as he raised his other hand up to give him a thumbs up. "You got this." 

The ogre tried to tackle him down, but Sour Cream held most of his ground, only being slightly pushed towards the wall.

"WOOOOOOO!!!!" Kiki cheered him on.

"No! Don't let him get that other point!" the bull roared out. He swam through the water as fast as he could, getting closer and closer to Sour Cream.

"Sour Cream, behind you!" Jenny warned.

Sour Cream tried to increase his speed. He pushed the ogre out of the way and the bull headbutt him, ramming his horns in Sour Cream's back. "AH!" he winced. He lost a bit of momentum.

"Whoa! Hey! That's a fowl! No horns!!" Jenny yelled. 

"We can play dirty however we want." said the werewolf beside them.

"Oh, it's like that, huh?" Jenny raised her fists.

"Jenny, no!" Kiki shouted, stopping Jenny just before she summoned her mist. "Why?! We can play dirty too!" 

"We can still beat with_out_ playing dirty." with nobody blocking her, Kiki swam past Sour Cream. She was just a few feet from the wall. "Sour Cream, I'm open! I'm open!" 

The bull ran into Sour Cream's side with his horns just as he threw the water balloon to Kiki. She flew up and grabbed the water balloon. It nearly slipped out of her hands, but she managed to get a good hold on it before diving back into the water. 

"No! Don't let her get that point!" the werewolf shouted.

"YOU GOT THIS, KIKI!!" Jenny immediately shouted afterwards.

Sour Cream tackled the bull and the bull tackled him back. "You want some of this, punk?!" the bull taunted. The two ran into each other holding on to each other's hands as they tried to overpower one another.

"Hey! No fighting! Team A is being a sore loser!!" Jenny yelled. 

"Well Team One doesn't know the rules of Pirate Bounty! Everything goes!" the werewolf shouted back.

The ogre tried to swim towards Kiki, but she dipped down, quickly zipping pass him. "Where'd she go?" she looked around the water underneath him.

Kiki poked her head back up, right beside the wall. "Aaaaand." she raised her hand out the water. "We. Have. The last. Point." she touched the wall with her finger.

"Yeaaah!! Suckers!!" Jenny shouted. "Hey! Quit it already you two!" she shouted at the two guys now wrestling in the water. They didn't listen to her and the wrestling only got more serious. The bull threw a punch and Sour Cream barely dodged it. 

"Okay, whoa, call your homeboy off!" Jenny ordered at the werewolf. 

"Yeah, man. That ain't cool." said Buck glaring at them through his glasses.

The werewolf looked down at the goblin. She snapped her fingers, then pointed towards Jenny. The girl wobbled them over as she held on to the werewolf's legs.

The werewolf crossed her arms, presenting them that mischievous smile of hers. "No." 

"Alright guys, this is going way too out of hand." said Kiki swimming back to the group.

"Says you!" the ogre shouted a few feet away from her.

"Then we'll do it ourself." said Jenny. Buck tread the water, but was stopped by the werewolf and the goblin. "NU UH. That's what you're not going to do." she lounged at Jenny and Jenny grabbed the girls hands. Buck and the goblin tried to steady themselves as the two above them kept pushing on each other. "This is ridiculous! All for a lousy game!" Jenny said through her teeth. "Y'all are SUCH babies!"

The werewolf growled at her as she continued to push and shove Jenny. Buck tried to step back, trying to break up the tussle, but the girl had Jenny's hands. "Come on! Just let her go!" he tried to sway and turn away, but it wasn't working.

"I'm coming Jenny!" Kiki shouted behind them. She threw the paralysing mist into the ogre's face and he froze in mid grab.

"No, Kiki, I got this!"

"No you don't." said the werewolf. "Abby, kick him." she ordered the goblin.

Not being able to see under the water, Buck let go of one of Jenny's legs and started waving his other hand below him to try and block the kick. He grabbed, but missed her leg and she kicked him right between the legs. Buck groaned, buckling over. "Oh no you didn't just do that!" Jenny yelled at her. The boy dropped to his knees in the water, sending Jenny along with him. The werewolf let her go and the goblin girl pushed her off Buck's shoulders. The two of them laughed, just as Kiki flew right into the werewolf, pushing both of them in the water.

A loud, high-pitched whistle blew.

"Oh, so now YOU want to be in this!" the werewolf lounged after Kiki and kiki dodged it, going under water. Abby tried to grab her, but she dodged her as well. Jenny swam underneath of the water towards them, tackling the werewolf further under water. Abby held her breath as she tried to tackle Jenny off of her friend, but she let go of the werewolf and swam through the water pass them. And Kiki swam up, pushing the goblin into the werewolf. The two tried to lounge after the sisters, but they kept dodging every grab and hit and tackle. Finally, they had to come up for air, breathing in large amounts as soon as they reached the surface.

"Man, they're just way too fast and slippery to get to." Abby weazed. "What are they, part mermaid?! AH!" she was pulled back down by Jenny. The werewolf girl took in some more air before diving back down towards the two.

With Jenny's back turned, the werewolf swam towards her, but Kiki grabbed a hold of her. Buck swam pass them towards the other two, trying to break up the tussle between Jenny and Abby. He started pushing them away, but Abby only clawed and pushed on him even more. Jenny got irate, she started throwing punches at the girl, landing one on her cheek and Buck held her arms to stop her. "Mm mm." he shook his head under water. Jenny wasn't listening to him. Abby was coming up and Jenny slipped through Buck's hands and turned his head towards Abby, snatching his glasses off his face. The goblin stopped in mid punch as gray, cement-like material formed around her body. Jenny put Buck's glasses back on and they swam up to the surface to get some air. "Jenny!" he breathed out.

"What?!" she coughed. "She deserved it! She was.. " she took a few more breaths "hitting all over you and your face!" she touched his face as she spread pink dust around his cut cheek and a bruise just below his glasses. They healed instantly.

....

Kiki was still swimming and dodging the werewolf's punches. In the mix of her throwing punch after punch, she saw Abby sinking down towards the bottom of the floor. She looked shocked, not trying to gasp as she swam down towards her.

The girl tried to pick Abby up, but she couldn't. Kiki left her to fend for her friend and she swam up to the surface, breathing in as much air as she could. "Fewf!" she breathed. "Man, those people are crazy! Over a stupid game." she swam towards Buck and Jenny, just as three lifeguards started swimming towards Sour cream and the bull. The first two lifeguards pulled them apart. Sour Cream was eyeing the bull. The bull looked at him with one good eye and one bloody eye. "He started it! It was him!" the bull yelled.

"No! It was just a game and HE got too serious about!" 

"Boys! Boys!" the third lifeguard cut in. "It doesn't matter WHO started it. Look at all of this!" he gestured to the blood in the water." he blew his whistle and made some kind of motion with his hands to the life guard at the top of a tall chair by the shore of the water. Some kind of secret code he was telling him. The lifeguard in the chair gestured something back to him and picked up the bull horn. "Attention people, attention people! This is a cold red. I repeat, a cold red. Everyone OUT of the pool. The Wave Pool will be down for the next hour." 

The whole group protested. Those who knew why they had to get out, kept cutting their eyes at Sour Cream and the bull. 

"Okay, you two. Time to go." said the third lifeguard.

The other two lifeguards started to swim back, their hold still on Sour Cream and Buck.

"What?! That's it?! That's all you're going to do?! But what about what he did to my face!" the bull yelled at him.

The one with Sour Cream stopped to look behind him at the commotion.

"Both of you were fighting. If I call the cops BOTH of you are getting reprimanded. Now you're lucky I DIDN'T call the cops!"

The two lifeguards continued their swim through the water as they made their way back to the shore. Kiki, Jenny and Buck followed behind as another lifeguard swam pass them to get the paralyzed ogre. The werewolf swam up to the surface to get some air. She looked at everyone leaving. "Hey! Hey, stop! Wait! Someone needs to get this stupid goblin!!" The third lifeguard motioned for Kiki, Jenny and Buck to continue their swim and they proceeded to swim towards the shore. He swam towards the werewolf. "THOSE monsters over there turned an ogre into stone! And I can't get her!" she shrieked. 

.......

Jenny, Buck and Kiki watched as a few more lifeguards ran into the water to help the third lifeguard out to help pick up the heavy cement ogre.

The second lifeguard was just finishing up his talk with Sour Cream before he let the boy go on his way. The lifeguard with the bull was still holding on to him as he continued to talk and argue with him.

"Well.. that escalated." Sour Cream strolled towards the group.

"Are you okay?" Kiki asked.

"Yeah. That dude couldn't lay a finger on me." 

"Well, now that everyone's barred from the pool for the time being, what are we going to do now?" 

"Hit some water rides of course!" Jenny shouted. "The Vertigo Insano Loop is one of the BEST ones!"

"Alright, cool." "Vertigo Insanity Loop it is." "Sounds cool to me." said Buck, Sour Cream and Kiki agreed. 

The four of them walked pass a few of the smaller water rides. Screams echoed through the park as one water log came roaring down a hill. The splash flew overhead, wetting them. "Niiiice." said Sour Cream.

The teens made their way around a bin to the banner of the ride. VERTIGO INSANO LOOP. The incredibly long line of people was just beyond the banner. They waited and watched everyone as they each, one by one went down the slide in a vertical plunge, right into an incline, forming into a huge loop, then down another dip and another incline into another loop, where the person gets pushed up the upturned tube and into the water.

"Man, I can not WAIT to get on there! That first drop is crazy!" said Jenny, watching another person step inside the clear tube of the ride.

"Neh, it's all about the loop. Especially that first one. It my not be the biggest one, but that steep incline and that narrow loop out beats that big boring drop any day. Why do you think it's called the Vertigo Insane _Loop? It's obviously talking about that one." _said Buck. 

The line was going fast and they were already halfway through the line, just a few feet from the flight of stairs.

"Yeah, I guess.. but the loops are just way too short. At least with the drop, it actually feels like you're falling for a few seconds versus those two second loops." 

"Both of you are wrong. It's all about the last bit of the ride when you get shot up a few feet and plunge right into the water." said Sour Cream. "Not at all." "No way." said Jenny and Buck over each other. The three started going back and forth on which part of the ride was better. 

"What about you, Kiki?" Jenny asked. "Which one is better?" 

"Honestly?" Kiki shrugged. "I prefer the inner tubes. Like the big one over by the The Swirling Blizzard. The Cannonball Steamer. Now THAT'S the one that people should be getting on. It's SO much better than this ride." 

The trio thought and they slowly started shaking their heads. "Neh, the inner tubes suck." said Jenny.

"Yeah, it's no match up against this ride." said Sour Cream.

"Pfft.. y'all just have bad taste in water rides." Kiki rolled her eyes.

A few minutes later and they were at the thirty three story tall slide. 

One by one the people in front of them went down the slide. Then it was Sour Cream, who was the first of the group to go on the slide. And the two employees stopped him.

"Um.. excuse me sir, but.. Would you mind telling us your weight, please?"

"Hey, I may be made of stone, but I'm not that heavy."

"Sorry sir but.. we have to make sure." the teenaged girl looked up at him.

Sour Cream sighed and rolled his eyes. Then he looked away to see the weight limit. MUST NOT EXCEED 400lbs. A wy smile came across his face. 

"Um.. sir? May you please tell us your weight? If you don't, unfortunately, I'm going to have to tell you to leave-" 

"200 kilos." he said plainly.

"Oh, um.. Come again? I didn't quite understand that."

"200 kilos." he repeated. Then he pointed at the sign. "It says 'must not exceed 400 pounds'. And I weigh 200 kilos."

She turned to her employee. "Is that.. is that more or less than 400 pounds?" she asked her. The girl shrugged, with an inaudible "I dunno." "I don't know anything about European measurements." she chewed on her gum. 

The girl sighed, then looked at Sour Cream up and down. "Mm.. I guess you can go?" 

Sour Cream nodded with a smile. "Thanks." 

"Oh wait! You have to put this on." the girl handed him a thin, black, rectangular piece to put on his back. 

Sour Cream put it on and entered the thin tube. The two employees showed him how to hold his arms. In an x, across his chest. He did so and the second girl closed the door. She gave the first girl a thumbs up and the girl pressed the bottom. Sour Cream disappeared in a blink of an eye. 

Jenny was up next. "Hello ma'am." said the first girl. "To prevent injuries to your wings, you have to fold them in front of you, and put your arms in an x across your chest while holding on to your wings."

"OK." she gave her the okay sign. She gave her the backpad gear to strap on her back and she stepped into the tube and bent her wings forward. She put her arms in an x and grabbed hold of her wings. The second girl gave the first girl a thumbs up and the girl pressed the button. Jenny was gone in an instant.

Buck was up next. "Sorry sir. But you have to take your glasses off." said the first girl.

"Okay. I'll just take them off when I get in."

"Sorry sir, but you have to take them off before you get in. What if you forget to take them off and lose them or suffer some sort of eye injury?" 

"I'm not going to forget to take them off."

"Sorry, sir.. but it's just company policy. The cameras" she pointed at the security cameras above them. One behind her, one near the steps on her left and one near the inner tube. "have to see you take them off. It's proof that we told you to take them off. So if you _do_ put them back on, _you're_ only held accountable. Not us."

Buck huffed. "Fine. But one of you will have to guide me to it." he closed his eyes and took off his glasses.

"Dude, all you have to do is like.. open your eyes or whatever." the second girl chewed on her gum. 

"Can't." was all he said.

The girl blew a bubble and popped it, sighing. "Hey, we have another dude pretending that he can like.. turn people into stone and stuff." she mumbled to the girl. "Just, guide him to the tube."

"I'm not pretending."

The first girl walked over and helped Buck into the tube. She handed him the backpad to strap on his back. "Okay, so you're going to cross your arms over your chest, in an x. Yeah, like that. And you're just going to hold your glasses in your hand. Pretty simple. Okay, looks like we're good." 

Buck turned to her. "Nice." he said casually. "Oh shoot! Not again." he closed his eyes but the girl was already turning grey into stone. "AH! He got me!! He-!" she froze. 

Kiki face palmed, shaking her head.

"Oh, so he really _can_ turn people into stone." the second girl said in a bored voice. "Cool.." with disinterest in her voice. She walked pass her coworker, ignoring her as she walked _unhurriedly_ to the podium. The girl leaned her elbow on the podium, placing her chin on her hand. She blew another bubble before pressing the button. Then Buck disappeared in an instant. 

Then it was Kiki. "Hey-" she smiled.

"Yeah, uh huh. Here you go. You just have to put that on your back, hold your wings and like, hold your hands across your chest in an x while _holding_ your wings." she chewed her gum. 

Kiki dropped the smile and placed her arms through the straps. Then she walked towards the tube, walking around the grey figure. She stepped inside the clear tube. She started to feel bad and turned to the girl. "Yeah, sorry about that. It should wear off....Uh.." She didn't really know when. Just then, the second girl walked up to close the door, but not before blowing and popping another bubble. "Yeah, have fun." she reiterated through her chews.

The inside of the tube was a bit cold. The early cool morning air mixed with the water within the closed tube made it a bit colder than outside. Kiki laid back and crossed her arms as she bent her wings forward. She grabbed them and waited for the ride to start.

The girl popped mother bubble and pressed the button. Kiki took another look at the grey figure just before the trap door slid back from underneath her feet. The figure disappeared and she turned her head back just as she rushed down the vertical drop of what felt like a free fall for five seconds. Water rushed along her sides as she continued down the pipe and into an incline for the first big loop. She went overhead and back down, sliding straight through the tube. She opened her eyes to see the night sky above her.

The pipe dipped down to another drop and Kiki held her breath as more water rushed along with her. The enclosed tube and the water in her ears muddled her hearing and the muddled noises from the outside world.

The tube rose up again and curved into another loop. She cleared it and then there was another small dip right before the tube lifted up once more, spraying her up in the air. She let go of her wings and flapped them once to give her more air time. "Woohoo!!" she cheered in the air. Then she fell back down in a graceful spiral towards the water. She made a small splash and swam up to the surface. She heard some cheering going on on the side of the ride. "That was a great splash! Ten out of ten!" she clapped.

Sour Cream cupped his hands over his mouth. "Show off!" but he still clapped along with them as he smiled.

"Buck is impressed." he nodded.

Kiki swam to the end of the water and got out. She shook her wings off with a flutter and walked towards the group. "Okay, now I see what y'all are talking about. The vertical dip AND the spiral loops _are_ pretty exhilarating."

The boys nodded. 

"See! I told ya!" said Jenny.

"Hey now. I still prefer the inner tubes over this though." she pointed at the ride behind her with her thumb.

"Pfft.. I should've known it was too good to be true." she rolled her eyes playfully. 

"And let me guess.. you want to go on the inner tubes, huh?" Sour Cream looked at her.

"OMGee, yeesss!! We still have PLENTY of time!!"

"Eh." Jenny shrugged. "Inner tubes it is. So, The Cannonball Steamer?" 

"Of course!! You KNOW it! I told you that's like, one of the best water rides here!"

Kiki lead the way as they made their way to the next water ride. "Hm, I wonder if Steven and Connie are doing okay together?" Jenny asked. 

Sour Cream chortled. "Oh, the two love birds? They're most likely having the time of their lives" 


	22. Chapter 22

"WOOOOOOO!!! I'M HAVING THE TIME OF MY LIFE!!! WOOOOOOOO!!!!" Steven shouted as he held on to the metal strings of the swings. The ride whirled them around and around.

"WOOOOOO!!" Connie cheered right beside him. 

They were nearing the end and the ride started to lower and tilt the swings back horizontally, lowering them down more as the ride neared it's stop.

The swings swayed slowly as the ride stopped. The floor rose up towards them and everyone started unbuckling and jumping on the metal flooring of the ride. 

"Yeaheaaa!!" Steven jumped off the platform and onto the ground. "That was even better the third time!"

Connie jumped down beside him. "Yeah." she laughed. "But I think we should go on some other rides now. We have a couple more hours left and we haven't been to the water park yet."

"Oh right, right. We have to keep the water parks in mind too. Mmm, maybe we can go there now. An hour of swimming after you ea should be good enough."

"Mmm. Maybe."

"Don't worry, Connie. Everything will be fine." he smiled at her.

The two walked passed the swings, a hotdog stand and a few other rides that they'd already been on. Steven was about to make a left turn to enter the water park side until he saw something that caught his eye. "AAAAAAWWWW!!! Soooo cute!! I can't believe I forgot about that ride!! Aw man Connie! We have to get on, please! Then we'll go on the water rides!" he started running towards the colorful carousel. 

Connie caught up to Steven just as he was going through the opened gate towards the ride. He turned around. "I'm choosing the jellyfish. It's much more colorful than all of the other rides. AND this one vibrates." he jumped on top of the jellyfish.

All of the other kids had chose their seats and the only one left was the seahorse and a lion one. Connie got on the back of the seahorse and held onto the handles protruding from the side of it's head. 

The ride started up, turning around slowly as the seats on the poles moved up and down.

"Here we go!" said Steven holding on to the straps on the side of the jellyfish. The ride bobbed as it moved up and down. Steven was focused on the scenery and the smell of cotton candy spider webs and hotdogs. Parents and their kids watched the carousel as it spun around merrily. Connie on the other hand, was focused on Steven and his adorable smile as he held on the jellyfish. What was it about Steven that captivated her so much? Was it because of how extremely adorable he was? Was it because he seemed like a genuinely nice and sweet kid? (Connie dismissed that one particular scene at the restaurant with Jeff).. Or was it his charisma? His charm? How easily he could make her laugh? She didn't know.. But everytime she looked at him, her "heart" would always skip a beat.. And there's always that twinkle in his eye that made her feel all warm and fuzzy inside. And his laugh.. So full of gentleness and happiness. Even the stars seemed to be shining on him and the wind seemed to be dancing only around him. His hair flowing perfectly in the air.. Goodness, what was he doing to her?

"Hey.. Connie?" he tilted his head. "Everything okay? Is.. something on my face?" he raised one of his hands before he remembered the paint. "Oh yeah! Almost forgot about the paint. That was close." 

Connie laughed. "That paint is holding up pretty well, by the way." she said. Then she went back to answer his question. "And I'm fine. It's just a.. pretty night, is all." 

"It sure is! Look at all of these colorful lights." he looked around the park. The rides and the food stands were lit up in hues of blue, orange, yellow, green and light blue. "And the night sky just makes everything pop and stand out." he turned back to Connie, with that famous twinkle in his eye. "I find it pretty relaxing."

Connie nodded. "Mhmm." she smiled, her mind still full of fluff and giddiness.

The two rode around a couple of times before Connie spoke back up. "You know, I never really cared for this ride, but now it's just giving me a thrill." she smiled. "I was like what's the point, you know? You get on here and just spin around in circles while you ride on random zoo animals. There were so many other rides that went around in circles that were SO much cooler. So, I went on them instead and I would always leave this ride out. But now that I'm here, it's much more different. Maybe because I'm viewing this ride in another angle? Or... feeling? ..Or maybe because I'm riding the ride ..With you?" she tried to fight off the blush. "I guess how you feel about certain things changes depending on your outlook on life.." she looked up at him. "You know what I mean?" 

Steven just had a huge grin on his face, smiling at her. "I just feel tingly~~~" his voice vibrated from the jellyfish.

The ride started to slow down.

"Looks like the ride is over already." Connie was careful enough to slide off the seahorse and Steven pulled himself up to his feet and jumped off the top of the jellyfish, landing hard on the dirt. "Come on, Connie! Time for some awesome water rides!!" then he looked at her attire. "Oh wait, _did_ you bring some swim clothes?"

"No.I.. forgot them. You brought yours?"

"Yup." he pulled the waste band of his jeans down and pulled up his yellow swim trunks to show her. Then he let go of his jeans. "But, if it would make you feel any better, we can BOTH go on these water rides with our clothes on!"

"Yeah, that sounds like a plan."

The duo made their way underneath the Water Park sign and all of a sudden, Steven started laughing to himself.

"What, what's so funny?" 

Steven laughed some more. "Oh, just thinking about this joke. I just got off of the jellyfish ride and now that we're going to the pool, the joke just popped up in my mind."

"What, what joke? Let me hear it."

Steven got close to her. "What makes a jellyfish laugh?" he asked.

Connie thought about it. "What makes.. a _jelyfish_..laugh.. A jellyfish.. hmm.." she looked around as if that was going to give her any clues to the joke. "Uh.." then she just said anything. "A.. funny joke? Uhg, I know that was horrible. I'm so bad at these."

"Not everyone is good at these. No need to worry about that. And that was actually a pretty good guess. But that answer is-Oh! Did you want to have another guess? 

"Mm, no. You can tell me."

Steven got even closer to her. "What makes a jellyfish laugh?" Steven repeated the question, raising his hands up slowly. "Ten. Tickles!" he threw his hands towards Connie's sides and started tickling her. The girl laughed and squealed. "Steven!" She guffawed. "Quit it!" 

"I can't." he continued tickling her as she ran away from him. "I have to give you four more tickles!" he joked.

"Well maybe I should give YOU ten tickles instead!" she turned around and started tickling him back. 

"Ah! The tables have been turned!" he tried to run away from her, but she kept up with him, her fingers tickling his sides and under his arms. "Nooo! I'm way! I'm, I'm WAY too ticklish!" he laughed. Connie continued her tickling. The boy continued to laugh. "Stop it, stop it! HAHA HAHA!! I'm, I'm gonna pee!"

Connie tickled him a little bit more before she decided that he went through enough tickling. The duo stopped not too far from the kiddie wave pool. Steven stopped to catch his breath and Connie was still laughing.

"Okay.. You win this time." he said through his pants. Then he got up slowly, taking in a few extra breaths. "Well, we're almost at the wave pool." he said. He finally caught his breath and began his walk to the pool. 

"Do you have any games in mind that you would like to play? Like beach volleyball or something?" Connie asked him.

"I don't know. I mean, there are SO many games to choose from! But beach balls should be out.."

"Why?"

"Well.. I kinda get a bit.. hyper.. when it comes to beach balls. BUT" he said quickly. "There are LOT'S of other fun games to play! There's Hungry Hungry Hippo, there's Freeze Tag, there's _Amoeba_ Tag, which I think is way more fun, there's Pearl Hunt, there's the classic Marco Polo and there's Pirate Bounty. Although Pirate Bounty can get a bit..Physical and serious.. So I tend to stay away from that game."

"I've only heard of Marco Polo. I mean, I've heard of freeze tag, but not in a pool." 

"You mean you've never played Hungry Hungry Hippo or Pearl Hunt?! I love Pearl Hunt! We definitely have to play a game of that!"

"How? We're going to rent out the materials?"

"Neh, the materials are usually already in the pool. You just grab and go. And look! They're playing Hungry Hungry Hippo!" he pointed at a group of kids between 7 and 12 throwing half filled water balloons inside of their team's floating bins. "Maybe we can go join them."

"You mean.. play with those kids?"

"Well, yeah." he didn't understand why she was hesitating. "They're only kids. Having fun is universal. We can easily play along with them." Connie didn't believe in that 'univerasal' part.. "And if you're worried about meeting people, you don't have to worry about that either. Because they're only kids. They're friendly" he said enthustically._Just because they're kids doesn't mean they're friendly.._ Connie thought to herself.

They were now at the water and Steven walked right in. "Ooo! The water is a bit colder than I thought." he trudged through the water. "Welp, looks like this is it for our face paint." said Connie. She walked right in. The cold not bothering her in any way. 

Connie looked around, taking in the site of the made up beach. Sand spilled over the area and parents laid across their lawn chairs, like they were at a sunny day at a tropical beach and not at a chilling autumn weather in the middle of the night. Then something shiny caught her eye. She thought she saw a flash of light shoot threw the sky, but just as she looked up, it had already disappeared. _A shooting star?_

"Connie!"

"Huh?" she looked back down and over to Steven who was a pretty good distance away from her.

"Come on! They said yes!" 

Connie walked further into the water until the water became deep enough and she swam towards him. 

Steven waited until she got close to him. "They invited us to be apart of their last game of Hungry Hungry Hippo. Come on, we can't miss this." he turned away. "Doggie paddle, forward!" he doggy paddled and Connie saw his tail treading the water for balance. _Wow, even his tail is cute._ she thought. She shook her head. _Focus, Connie. Get yourself together._

The two met up with the group of kids. The oldest one of the group swam towards them. "Okay, everyone knows the rules of the game. Whoever has the most water balloons in the basket wins." then he looked at the kids around him. "Remember, no biting, no scratching, no hissing, no barking, no growling, no kicking, no head butting." he cut his eye at a little boy with baby antlers on his head. The boy looked away, sad. "No teasing, no name calling, no roughhousing, no high pitched whistle blowing, no making webs, no spraying ink, no spray_ing_, no tackling, no pulling anybody down in the water, no grabbing and no, whatever else it is that y'all do. I want a good, clean game out there." he shouted. "I don't want any kid getting any boo boos and owies and I don't want any kid running back to the shore to his mommy. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes!!" the kids and Steven shouted.

"That's what I like to hear." he nodded. "Okay, ladies and gentlemen. Time to choose who's going to be on your team. Henry. Penelope. You two will be the team leaders." he pointed at the two kids.

The two of them chose their teams. There were three kids, the main guy included and Steven on Henry's team and three kids and Connie on Penelope's team.

"Oh! And another thing, before we begin." the boy said. "Don't forget to have. FUN!!" he blew on his plastic whistle and every single kid and Steven and Connie started diving for the water balloons. Cold water splashed about as each person from the two teams flailed and grabbed a hold of the water balloons.

Steven grabbed two water balloons, one in each hand and he grabbed a water balloon in his mouth. He doggy paddled to the basket and threw the water balloons in.

Connie grabbed a few water balloons, holding them in one arm as she swam with the other. One balloon slipped from her arm, but she continued her swim to the floating buckets. She dumped the water balloons in one of them and swam back.

Kids were cheering themselves and each other on as they filled up their three baskets little by little.

Five minutes into the game and the two teams were each one bucket away from winning. They scrambled more in getting the rest of the water balloons. Two kids were pulling on the same water balloon. "Hey! Hey!" the boy blew on his whistle. "Tug of war is ALSO banned!" the two girls let go and he took the water balloon from them and threw it back in the middle. 

Connie and Steven were swimming to the same water balloon, with Steven quickly nabbing it in his mouth. "Hey! No fair, you knew I was trying to get that one!" Connie laughed.

"Io don shee yo nahme o nit!" he said with the water balloon still in his mouth. He dog paddled back to the basket and Connie swam after him. She grabbed his sides and started tickling him. 

"OH NOH!!" he laughed. "NAT AGUN!!" he tried to both not open his mouth wide enough for the water balloon to fall out AND to not clench his teeth on it, popping it as he laughed. "NOH! NOH fair!"

"Nope! He didn't say anything about no tickling!" she ran her hands up his underarms and he laughed more. He ended up holding the balloon too tight between his teeth and somewhere between his laughs, the balloon popped. "Huh?" he looked down at the deflated piece of material snagged onto his teeth. "Awww.."

Connie laughed.

The boy blew the whistle. "Popped balloons don't count." he grabbed a balloon and started swimming back to the basket. "Come on guys, there's only a few more water balloons left!" he dropped the balloon in the basket. 

Two kids from Steven's side and one kid and Connie got the last few water balloons, throwing them in the bin. 

"Aaaaaalrighty. Looks like we got all of the water balloons. Let's see who had the most and" the boy looked at the bins on the side that Steven was on. Each bucket was filled up pass the brim. Then he looked at the side that Connie was on. Two bins were overfilled, but the third basket was only filled halfway. "yeah, looks like we have a winner! Henry's team wins!" 

The kids and Steven cheered.

The boy blew the whistle again. "Okay teams. You know what to do next. Good game, good game." he clapped. 

Connie watched as the two teams swam over to each other and started giving each other high fives and saying how much of a good game it was. Good sportsmanship. Connie swam over and did the same and eventually she bumped into Steven again. "Good game." she held out her hand. 

He took her hand. "Yeah, good game." he stood a few inches in front of her, smiling.

_Wow.. his hands are so soft._

Steven licked his lips and opened his mouth, giving her one huge doggy kiss across her face.

"Bleck!" she let go of his hand and threw some water on her face.

"Good game, Connie!" he laughed.

"Yeah, I could've done without the "kisses" though." she splashed more water on her face.

"Come on, Connie. They're not that bad." he laughed. Then he winced and grabbed his stomach.

"Steven, are you okay?"

"Huh? Yeah." he shook his head. "I'm fine." 

"You sure? You look like you're in pain." 

He grunted. "Yeah.. I'm fine." he let go of his stomach, but his face still looked pained.

"Hey guys!"

They looked to the main guy calling for them.

"We're gonna play a game of Shark Freeze tag! Y'all want in?"

_The two swam up to the group. "Who's going to be it?" Penelope asked._

"That's easy." said the boy. "OnetwothreeNOTIT!!!" he said quickly.

Everyone said the phrase "Not it." over each other, except for Connie, who said it last after just realizing what they were doing. They looked at her, laughing. 

"Looks like you're it!" said the boy.

"But.. I don't know how to play."

"You ever played freeze tag before?"

"Yeah."

"Well it's just like that, except in the water. You tag someone and they freeze. The catch is that, to _un_freeze, you have to swim around the person two times."

"Oh, okay."

"Alright, so are we good here?" 

"Yeah." she nodded.

"Okay!" he clapped his hands. "The base is that wall." he pointed to the edge of the pool. "Everyone spread out! Er-" he looked at Connie. "Um, what's your name?"

"Connie."

"Connie's gonna count to twenty! And remember, the 7ft end is out of bounds and the buoy in the middle is out of bounds. We have to stay in this area." he dove into the water as everyone else scattered away. Connie closed her eyes and counted _1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9.. 10..11..12..13..14..15..16..17..18..19...20._ She opened her eyes "Ready or not, here I come!" she shouted. _"Wait.. isn't that for Hide and Seek? Meh, whatever. I already said it now.._ Connie looked around the area and saw a handful of kids peeking out of the water. The rest was assumably under water, especially since she'd seen gills on two of the kids. She decided to try and get them first. She dove down and saw the two girls with the gills swimming towards the wall. They stopped. Connie swam after them and they each ran another way. She went left to catch one of them.

Connie swam up to her and tapped her. Frozen. The other girl was just a few feet from the wall and Connie, though she didn't want to because she figured it would be cheating, but seeing that the girl was part mermaid and she would technically also fall into the cheating category, Connie decided to use her super speed to catch up to the girl. The girl swam faster, but Connie was already beside her. _Tap._ Frozen. 

She swam up to the surface and three other kids stopped and ran opposite ways. Connie went for the faster one. He was halfway to the wall. Connie caught up to him and tagged him. Frozen.

The game lasted for a full ten minutes as Connie dove and swam up and froze and refroze the kids and Steven in the game, with two times she had to ask Steven if his stomach was okay, the boy grabbing at it from time to time.

Now, just about every kid was frozen. She just had to refreeze Steven again and freeze two other kids.

Connie locked eyes on her adorable target. She swam nearly underwater, only her eyes on up showing.

_Wow..Her eyes sure are mesmerizing._ Steven shook his head. _No! Focus on the game._"Can't get me this time, Connie~~! Freeze me once, shame on me, freeze me twice.. ALSO shame on me.. But you're not gonna freeze me a third time! AHUAHUAHUAHUAHU!!" his signature silly laugh. He swam away from her and she followed after him. She lifted her head up. "I'm gaining on ya, Steven!" she stretched her hand out and Steven shape shifted his arms and legs and tried to doggy paddle faster.. Connie kept up the pace aaaand _tap._ Frozen again.

"And I thought the wolf paws would work!" he whined, looking at his paws. He shape shifted his limbs back and dipped them back in the water in defeat.

"Nope." Connie smiled and swam away from him. She looked around. No sign of the boy or the girl. She dove down and saw the girl with the gills at the bottom of the pool, swimming her way to the wall. The boy was also underwater, but closer beneath the surface. The two on opposite ends of Connie. She went for the girl first, using her speed once again to catch up to her. _Tap._ Frozen.

She quickly spun around and went for the boy. He tried his best to swim as fast as he could. He was just SO close to the edge! Just..a few..more...feet aaaand _tap._ Frozen. "Awww.." he frowned. "And I was THIS close too." he showed a small gap between his thumb and index finger.

The main boy came up again. "Not close enough." the boy frowned even more at that. "Okay, so what're we gonna play next?"

The little boy perked back up. "Oooo!! How about Amoeba Tag!" 

"Yeah!!" a few of the kids cheered in agreement. 

"You know how to play that one?" the main boy asked Connie. 

She shook her head.

"It's almost like tag where the person who's it has to tag other people, except this time, whoever the person tags, they have to hold on to them and they use each other to tag other people. Then eventually it becomes like a chain and it starts getting harder and harder to dodge it."

"Okay." she nodded. "So who's going to be it this time?"

"Whoever you tagged first in the last game." 

"Umm.."_It was one of the twins.. but_which_ one?_"Not quite sure who.."

The two girls stayed quiet, looking at each other, then back to the group.

"Okay, then _both_ of you will be it."

"Uh, what? That's not fair." said one of them.

"Also, that's not fair to start off with TWO people who are it." said another kid in the group.

"Mm, you guys have a point. Well, okay then. I'll be it. Okay, everyone. Get ready." he closed his eyes. 

"The wall is still base, right?" he heard someone ask.

"Yeah! ..1..2..3..4..-"

Connie swam away and Steven followed her.

"This guys has some serious skills. Hope he doesn't get you first." he taunted.

"Pfft. I don't have to worry about him."

"-17..18..19..20! Alright you ghouls and gents! Heeeeeeere's Davis!" he dove down in the water and Steven and Connie did the same to keep a close eye on him. He was going after one of the boy's closest to his age. He tagged him and they locked arms. They immediately swam towards their next victim. The little boy from earlier that Connie had froze _or refroze_ last.

They went after him and the little boy swam up to the surface and towards the wall as three other kids swam away from them and down into the water, swimming towards Steven and Connie.

The two were gaining on him and just as the second boy was about to grab him, the little boy dove back down. They followed him.

The three kids, Steven and Connie used that time to swim towards the wall, still underwater.

They two swam after him getting closer to him. The boy tried swim faster. The second boy almost had him, his fingers just a few inches behind his foot. The boy turned away and started spinning around. The three swam in circles until he finally got tired. He slowed down his place and the second by tagged him. Now he was the third amoeba. They saw one girl swim overhead and they swam back up, catching her instantly. They looked around for their next targets as kids swam above, below and around them. 

Steven and Connie were close to the wall. The four amoebas was right by them and they had to swim back up and away from the wall to avoid them.

"That was close." Steven strained out. His face was in a wince and he was slowing down..

"Steven..You sure you're okay?"

"M.. mhm." he blew out a breath and continued swimming, passing two other kids.

Connie turned around. Two more kids had gotten tagged and it was now getting harder to escape them. Any of the six kids could tag them. They were going for one of the twin girls, her twin already being one of the amoebas. 

Steven and Connie dove back down while they were distracted by their next target above surface.

The girl was caught and they swam towards another target. Steven and Connie stopped and were treading the water, watching the chain of kids swim every which way to catch the rest of the kids. As they tread the water for a few moments, something circular overhead landed above them and casted a shadow in the water. They looked up. A beach ball was floating along the water.

_"Uh oh.. Runway beachabll._ Connie joked to herself.

Steven's eyes went wide. "BEACH BAAAAALLL!!!!!" he gurgled underwater and nearly chocked. He swallowed some of the water and ran up to the surface, to catch a bit of air before grabbing a hold of the beach ball. He started licking and biting it.

Connie swam back up to the surface and saw one kid swimming up to them. "Hey! That's our beach ball! Stop!!"

Steven continued to paw and knaw on the beach ball with his side teeth, drooling all over the beach ball.

"Steven, you need to give him back his beach ball." Connie grabbed the ball and pulled and Steven bite down on it harder. "NN nn!!" he ignored her.

She pulled on the beach ball more, using her strength to snatch it from him. She held the ball up, while still trying to push Steven away _and_ while trying to tread the water with the other hand. 

"AH! So Connie wants to play too!" he cheered. He lunged up, trying to get the ball out of her hands, not realizing that he was also pushing her down in the water.

"No! I'm not playing, Steven. This isn't our beach ball." she tried staying afloat, while trying to keep the ball out of his reach. He climbed, trying to grab it.

The boy caught up to them. "Throw it back to me!" 

Connie threw the ball and Steven swam after it, panting happily. 

"Steven, no!" she swam after him. 

The boy caught the ball and Steven jumped on him. The boy squealed as he was pushed underwater. Connie grabbed Steven, lifting his head out the water. He had the beach ball in his mouth and the boy was holding the other end of the ball as he got lifted out the water as well. He choked. "It's mine!" he pulled and Steven chuckled. "You haff to geddet from me den." he bite down on the ball more. 

The boy pulled one way and Connie pulled Steven the other way, trying to get the ball out of Steven's mouth. The werewolf growled happily, shaking his head as he tried to rip the ball away from the boy's grip.

"Steven, just let go already! It's not yours!"

Steven continued to chew and pull on the beach ball.

"Give iiiit!!" the boy strained out.

Steven turned to Connie. He chuckled and shape shifted his teeth into his werewolf canines. He growled as he clamped down harder.

"No, Steven! You're going to-"

_POP! ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..._

".. pop it.." she sighed. She let go of him.

The boy screamed and cried as he watched the beach ball deflate between Steven's teeth. Steven started whining and looked up at Connie with his sad, puppy dog eyes.

She looked up at the kid. "I am soo soooooo sorry!" 

"My beach ball!!" he cried.

"Maybe you could get another on-"

The boy swam away crying. 

Connie turned her glare to Steven, she folded her arms and narrowed her eyes at him. "Steven." she said lowly.

Steven whined more as he dipped his head further into the water and away from Connie, not making any eye contact. 

The boy swam to shore, running to his mother, crying. He tugged on her skirt and pointed towards the two. She looked up at them. _Uh oh.. What's going to happen now?_ Connie wondered.

The lady simply waved them off and patted the boy on the head, saying something. Then she took his hand and walked him over towards a beach shack, presumably to give him another beach ball. Connie sighed a breath of relief.

"Hey you two!" Connie looked up, but Steven kept his head down.

"Are y'all still in the game or what?" the boy asked them.

"Yeah!" Connie shouted back. "Come on, Steven. It's no use who in whining about it now." she swam towards the group. Steven waited until she was a few feet ahead of him before swimming to the group.

The game had continued on for a few more minutes. The amoeba catching a still sad and distracted Steven and Connie let herself get caught.

They played a second game and Steven got caught the first time and Connie let herself get caught. The game only lasted for around ten minutes. Now they were playing a third game and Steven was out of his muck by then and actually playing along. Three kids had already been caught and Steven turned to Connie. He got an idea. He got the amoeba's attention, waving in front of them. They looked at him and he pointed at Connie. He swam over towards her. "Hey, Connie!"

"Yeah, Steven?"

"Check this out!" he swam beside her so she would turn around. Her back was facing the amoeba. He flipped down and started kicking his legs out of the water like the people in one of those water shows he'd seen with his parents.

He spun around in a circle and bicycle kicked in the air. Steven watched underwater as the amoeba swam closer to her. He swam upright. "Pretty cool, huh?" 

She watched his eyes dart to the left. "Uh.. sure? I mean, I've seen _tons_ of people do that." she was unamused. "Now, spinning around with your eyes closed and your arms behind your back is talent." she lied. 

Steven tilted his head. "That sounds easy to me." he closed his eyes and Connie looked behind herself. The amoeba was coming right after her and she swam away. 

Steven swam upside down with his arms around his back. He spun around a few times and felt his toe get touched. The person wiggled his toe, he stifled a laugh, but snorted a bit of water. He swam back up to the surface and choked a bit before it turned into laughter. "Connie." he laughed. Then he opened his eyes. "Oh.." 

One of the kids that was caught was spotting a smug look. "Got yoooou." 

He looked at Connie. "You got me!" he gasped.

_"You_ were trying to get me first."

"Well now I have... You!" he lounged for her and she dodged away from him. "Huh?" The amoeba started swimming after her. 

After a few minutes of getting chased, she eventually she let herself get caught again and they played the game a fourth time.

"Okay, maybe we should switch the rules up a bit." said the main boy. "We can-"

"Timmy! Julie! Come on kids, it's time to go!" said a mother from the shore.

"You too, Xavier." said another woman.

"Ma, can we please just play one more game!" Julie shouted back.

"Yeah! Pleaaaaaase!" Xavier added in.

"Pleaaaaaaaase!!!" the kids and Steven joined in.

The parents talked amongst each other, before looking back up. "Okay, just _ one_ more game." she told them. The kids and Steven cheered.

"Okay, change of plans." said the main boy. "Let's finish the morning off with Pearl Hunt." 

The kids squealed.

"I.. don't know how to play Pearl Hunt either."

"Really? That one either? It's just like playing Hungry Hungry Hippo with the water balloons, except this time, they're golf balls and you have to dive down to get them and put them in the bucket."

"I'll get the golf balls." said Timmy. He swam to the shore and came back lugging a huge barrel of golf balls.

"Nice. Alright, let's choose our teams. Timmy, since you brought the golf balls, you can be the team leader aaaaand." he looked around. "Julie can be the other one."

The two kids chose their team members and the game started immediately.

Steven lost a bit of momentum after diving down for a few pearls. He put them in the one basket they were using and took a few breaths leaning on the basket as he grabbed his stomach. Connie was swimming towards the single basket, but saw him and swam to him, being mindful of the kids swimming up and down around her. "Maybe you should stop, Steven? Doesn't look like your stomach is doing well." 

"I'm fine Connie. My stomach is as strong as steel, remember?" he swam away and dove down for more pearls and she waited until he came back up to put more pearls in the basket. He looked at her. "Really, Connie. I'm okay." he swam back down to the water and she went back to the game, swimming towards the basket again.

The game continued on for a few more minutes. Kids continued to grab and go, grab and go.

Steven and Connie had their eyes on the same two pearls laying beside each other. The two swam closer and closer towards them. Connie stared at Steven, a mischievous smile on her face as she reached out her arm. Steven picked up his place and reached out with his hand. The two swam closer and closer until Steven slowed down to a stop, wrapping his arms around his stomach, bending over. He gave Connie an apologetic look and swam back up to the surface. Connie left the two pearls at the bottom of the pool and swam up to the surface. Steven was swimming away to the shore. "Steven?" Connie called out to him. He turned around, still holding his stomach. "Umm.." he trailed off.

Connie watched as a bubble came to the surface. The boy blushed in embarrassment. "Mngg.. please excuse me." he quickly swam out the water.

A few kids and the main boy looked at him and Connie turned to them. "Sorry guys, but I guess we have to leave the game early!"

"Awww.." "Awww man.." a few kids said. "Okay, see ya, Connie!" the boy waved to her. She waved back at them and swam to the shore, hoping that Steven was okay.


	23. Chapter 23

Connie was waiting for the werewolf outside of the restrooms.

Twenty minutes later and Steven was leaving the bathroom, still drying his hands off with a napkin. Beads of sweat was on his forehead and he wiped them off with the napkin. He looked at Connie and gave her a sheepish smile. "Heh.. Yeah.. I guess getting that combo meat platter _wasn't_ such a good idea after all." he walked up to her and a little toot came out. "Um.. that. Wasn't me?"

Connie scoffed. "Sure it wasn't."

Steven threw the napkin away in an overfill trashcan.

"Are.. you sure you're okay now?"

Steven looked down and patted his stomach gently. "Yeah.. I think it's all out now."

"Okay." she said. "But maybe we should avoid any more swimming and any more rides for right now." she got off the bench. "Now come on. Let's go find you a ginger ale and maybe some of those little saltine crackers for you." The boy nodded and they took their time walking slowly towards the arcade and carnival games area.

...........

"YEAAAAAAHHHHH!!!" Buck shouted as the ride dropped down at a free fall towards the ground. After going on ride after ride after ride, he finally got to get on one of his favorite rides of all time. Da Drop Zone. 

Jenny was holding on to the shoulder bars, clenching her eyes and her jaws tight as the ride rushed down. She groaned, wanting the ride to be over.

The ride came to a rushed halt and started slowly inching more towards the ground. People around them on the ride started cheering. 

The bars pushed up and Buck put on his glasses and got out. He helped Jenny out of her seat and she wobbled across the ground. "I don't think I'll ever get used to that ride.." she mumbled. 

"Aw, come on, Jenny." sly smile on his face. "Let's go again."

"Yeahh... UH uh.. Not me. YOU can go on there again. I'mma wait by the exit."

Buck shrugged. "Okay."

The two exited the ride and Buck went back in line while Jenny waited over by the exit.

Buck ended up going on the ride two more times.

The ride grinded to a halt and slowed down. The bars lifted up and Buck put his glasses back on and walked over to a bored Jenny.

"Come on, Buck." she grabbed his hands. "Enough with this ride. Let's go to the carnival games!!" she bounced. "I want you to win me something!"

"Nnn... Okay.." He let her pull him away from the awesome ride and towards the lame, rip-off carnival games that he could never win..

.........

"Oooooo! Mommy, mommy! Take picture! Take picture!" A little girl ran up to a statue. It was standing on one leg. The other leg was being held bent behind it's back with one arm. The other arm was grabbing the back of it's head. 

The mother gestured for the girl to scoot a bit closer as she zoomed in a bit on her phone. The girl slid a bit to her right, just in front of the statue. 

"Say cheeeeese!" her mom held the phone steady.

The statue moved, planting his foot back down on the ground as he loomed over the little girl. "Rooaaaaar!! he said with his hands out in front of him.

The girl screamed and started crying as she ran back to her mom. She held on to her mother's waist, legs. The mother shot glares at Sour Cream who was belly up in laughter.

"What kind of a sick joke was that!" she yelled at him. 

Sour Cream was too busy laughing at his prank to answer her.

"UHHHHGGG!!" she stormed off with her crying child.

Sour Cream went back in his position, trying to hold in his laughter.

A few minutes later and another victim came by on his phone. He stopped to send someone a text. Sour Cream tapped him on the shoulder and went back into position. The boy looked back at the incredibly still statue, then at his shoulder. _No bird poo. Hm, must've been nothing.._

The boy sent his message and went back on YouTube. Sour Cream tapped on his shoulder again. "Hey! Who the-!" he looked behind himself. There was nobody there but the statue. The boy turned around slowly, then snapped around again. He didn't see anyone. He turned back around again and went back to his phone.

Sour Cream craned his neck over the boy's shoulder and in the boy's peripheral vision. The boy caught a glimpse of a figure behind him and turned around. "So whatchu watchin'?" 

"AAAAHHHH!!" the teen jumped back and Sour Cream laughed.

"Aye! That wasn't FUNNY man!" the boy growled out. Sour Cream laughed even more. 

"You know, you're gonna pick the wrong person one day!" said the teen. 

"Pfft.. yeah right." Sour Cream continued to laugh at him as he walked away.

Sour Cream went back into position after his fits of laughter finally died down.

Another victim was walking up already to him. "Ah, what a handsome statue." the elderly lady pulled out her Polaroid camera slowly out of her purse.

_Hmm.._ should_ I scare her? She looks pretty old................. Pffft. She'll be fine._

The senior held the Polaroid up to her face, then clicked her teeth. She pressed the button to open the screen cover and shakily lifted the camera back up to her face. She held the camera right in front of Sour Cream's face.

She pressed another button and there was a flash. A photo came out a few moments later. She pulled out the photo and took a step back. She held the camera back up as steady as she could to take another one. There was another flash and another photo slid out. She grabbed that one and put the camera back in her purse. She looked at the two photos, one in each hand. 

Sour Cream chose that time to strike. He threw his arms up in front of him. "HEEYY!!" he shouted at her and lady stumbled back, throwing her arms up and letting go of the photos.

Sour Cream leaned forward, hands planted on his knees as he laughed. 

The elderly lady held her chest as she tried to catch her breath. Then she scowled at him, wrapping the strap of her pocket book around her hand. She brought it down, wacking Sour Cream in the head, every word a hit on the noggin. "How. Dare. You. Do. That. You. Darn. Whipper. Snapper!"

"Ow, ow, ow,ow!! It was ow! Just ow! A joke!! Ow, ow!!" Sour Cream tried to block the hits away, blocking only some. He ran away a few steps and flew away.

"Yeah! You better run away!!" she raised her fist with the purse in it. "Millennialls!!!!!!" she shouted at him.

Sour Cream flew over a few of the carnival games before spotting Kiki in front of the High Striker. She was holding a mallet in her hands. She had her eyes narrowed on the lever in front of her. She took a deep breath just as Sour Cream landed right by her.

"Okay.. just ONE more time.."

The man gave her a minute nod, leaning his hand on the prize counter, his other hand in his pocket.

Kiki raised the mallet over her head and brought it down. The puck went up just under the halfway mark, then slid back down. "UHHHG!! THIS GAME IS RIGGED, MAN!"

"I'm afraid I do not know what you are talking about." the dapper guy in the suit tried to play coy.

"Yes you do! I just seen a little girl play this game and it went up to the same height!" 

The guy gave her a smug one arm shrug. "Then perhaps she's as strong as you. Ever thought of that?"

Sour Cream chuckled behind her and she turned around. Blushed embarrassed. 

She turned back around. "How the?! What the?! Don't you talk to me like that! That girl is NO where near as strong as me. YOU'RE the one that's doing something to this game!"

"Suuuuure I am. Like I have some kind of remote or something." posh laugh.

"Maybe you do!" she accused him.

Sour Cream stopped her. "Maybe I should try this." 

Kiki handed him the mallet and he stepped up to the mat on the ground.

"Uh, uh, uhhhh." the guy shook his head.

"Whaa?"

The guy put his hand out, moving his fingers up and down in a "cough up some dough" kind of gesture.

Sour Cream rolled his eyes and sighed, digging into his pocket. He slammed the 5 dollars in his hand and was about to raise the mallet when the guy stopped him again, his hand still out. Sour Cream sighed louder and digged into his pocket again. He slammed another five in his hands. "Highway robbery.." he lifted the mallet just as the guy put his hand in his pocket. He grabbed the remote and turned the knob clockwise, tightening the lever.

Sour Cream swung down with all his might. The puck went up halfway, then back down.

"Okay, UH uh. Now there is NO way that should've went only half way. This dude is REALLY strong."

"Clearly not strong enough." he sassed.

"What?!"

"Kiki, it's okay. I'm not even going to waste my time with this guy."

The man was standing there. His smug expression not leaving his face.

"Fine." she threw the mallet back to him. "I didn't want any of your lame prizes anyway.." The two walked away just as another little girl came up to the man. "Why, hello there little girl. Care to try out how strong you are?" 

She smiled, her two front teeth missing. She bounced up and down. "YEESS!!"

He turned the knob down on the remote. "That'll be ten dollars."

.........

Buck stepped up to the guy. His fists clenched at his sides. "You think you can get rid of me that easily?" he spat out.

The guy chuckled. His arms crossed and his head held high. "Face it, buddy. You don't have what it takes."

Buck growled, stepping up to the guy. "Is that a challenge?"

The guy stepped up to him. "You don't stand a chance, "tough guy."

Buck threw his arm in the air!! AND SLAMMED ....A ten dollar bill on the table.. "You're on."

"Alright, Bucky. You got this." Jenny was massaging his shoulders. "All you need is four little rings across the bottles. That's it. " 

Buck nodded. "Don't worry. I got it this time."

Jenny let go of Buck and he walked up to the table, moving his neck side to side and shaking his limbs loose. "Yeah, I got this now." said Buck. The man slid him the four green rings. "Just you wait and see." Buck told the guy. 

The man stepped to the side, giving them a sly smile.

Buck bent his knees a bit and hovered one arm in front of him, the ring held not too tight and not too loose in his fingers. He threw the ring and the ring spun around for what felt like 1 minute.

The ring rattled and settled with a clink. Buck did the same for the next one, bending his knees and being very careful with how he bent his wrist. He threw the ring and it hit one bottle and popped across a few bottles before snagging a head of one. It spun around and settled with a clink. Both he and Jenny let out a breath they were holding.

Buck took a breath, steadied himself and threw the third one. _CLINK..... CLINK, CLINK, CLINCK, CLINK.....CLICNK..CLINK zhhhhh...._It whirled around the neck of the bottle before settling.

Buck took the last one and bent his knees. He took another deep breath.

The guy stared at him from the side of the booth he was leaning on. Buck turned his wrist and just very inconspicuously, the guy pressed a button on the wall. The bottles started vibrating.

Buck threw the ring and it soared through the air. The ring bounced off of the first bottle, then the second.. then a third, then a fourth, then a fifth. It picked up speed as it clinked on more and more vibrating bottles until it hit the lip of one bottle. The ring bounced off and flew back, falling with a clink on the floor.

"What?!" "Now YOU definitely did something that time!!" Jenny shouted. They both looked at the ring on the ground.

The guy shook his head. "Nope. It was just how you threw it."

"But I-!" he sighed, hanging his head low.

"Told you I didn't trust this guy.."

Buck turned to Jenny. "I three it exACTLY how I threw the others!..Maybe I should play again." he was reaching into his pocket for his wallet, but Jenny stopped him. "No, Buck.."

The guy was counting the stack's of cash in his hand. He looked over at the couple, his lips pursed up in a smug.

She grabbed his arm. "Let's just go. These games are rigged."

The man looked back and continued to count his money.

Jenny laced her fingers between Buck's and the two walked away. "Nobody EVER really wins at those games anyway." she told him.

................

Connie was finding it more and more difficult to carry all of the stuffed animals that Steven had successfully won for her in every game that he'd played. "Umm, Steven? I can't see your head anymore." The puff ball tail from the stuffed pink bunny that Steven had just won and had threw over the other stuffed animals was now obscuring her view. 

"Oops! Sorry, Connie. Here, let me get some of those for you." he picked up a stuffed lion, a cookie cat ice cream pillow, a gag toy called Mr. Queezy and a stuffed bear with shades and a microphone that they nicknamed MC Bear-Bear.

"Thanks. Now I can finally see where I'm going."

The two were coming up to another carnival game at the end of the circle. A tall, colorful gate was behind it and yellow, orange and red trees were behind it and arching over the fence. 

"Looks like we've reached the end of the carnival game line. And this is an easy one too! You would think they saved the hardest one for last." He ran up to the booth and Connie held onto the toys as she ran after him.

Three kids and a teen walked away from the booth empty-handed.

"Hey there!" Steven shouted out. He laid the stuffed toys on the counter and digged into his pocket. He slammed a ten dollar bill on the counter a bit too enthusiastically. "One game, please!"

The guy looked at all of the toys on the counter, then at the stuffed animals in Connie's arms. He looked back at Steven bouncing up and down. "Hm, looks like you've mastered the carnival games, huh?"

Steven nodded. "Sure did! Now all I have to do is win THIS game and we'll be complete!"

The guy scoffed. "Well you can _try_ to win, kid."

Steven slid over to the small, plastic water hydrants and stood in front of one of them. He held on to the handles on the side of it and got ready. His eyes on the ship's ahead of him. He leaned in and bent his knees slightly. The guy and Connie watched from the side.

The buzzer started and Steven pushed the hydrant forward as the water sprayed in a line, right at the tube underneath of the ship. He titled the hydrant a bit and continued spraying the bottom of the tube. The water filled the tube and the ship started moving up towards the top of the line.

Steven pulled the hydrant back, still spraying the tube. The guy watched him as the first tube was filled up. The ship reached the line and Steven went straight to another tube, filling it up and filling it fast. Way too fast for the guy's liking.

He looked on, hiding the shocked feeling behind a neutral expression. He ever so casual leaned on the counter.. that just so _happened_ to also have a small button underneath of it. He pressed the knob in and turned it. All of the bottom of the tubes started popping off one by one. The first ship was falling back down as water started falling out of it. "Steven! The ship!" Connie pointed with her chin at the plastic ship. "Huh? UH oh!" he turned the fire hydrant and started filling up the first tube under the ship again. The second ship that Steven was trying to keep afloat was also falling back down now. "The second ship is going back down too!" Connie warned him. The man tried to keep his devious smile from breaking his neutral expression. _Piece of cake._

"Don't worry, Connie. I know just what to do." he learned in and pushed the hydrant forward as he continued to spray the tube. Then he turned the hydrant left, then right then he pulled it back towards him. The water pressure on the hydrant increased and more water came out of it. 

The guy had to do a double take. _How is he doing that?! That's not in any of the manuals!!_

He watched as Steven filled the first tube up and he watched as he went over to the next tube, refilling it.

"Oh NO you don't." he whispered to himself. _Not_ oddly enough, he had another button, just underneath of the knob. He turned it clockwise and the top of the ship started blowing air down the tube, pushing the water out faster.

"WHA oh, not again." Steven laughed. He turned back to the first tube and pushed the hydrant down. More water sprayed out of it and he filled up the tube in just seconds, then he went back to the second tube, filling the rest of it up in seconds. _How is that possible?!?!?!?_ The guy turned the knob down more, but Steven only refilled the two plastic tubes back up. "Go, Steven, go!" 

Steven eyed the ship's, a mischievous grin on his face as he refilled the second tube. Then he turned to the third tube, filling it up halfway, then going to the first tube, then the second tube again to keep the afloat.

The guy twisted the knob more, pushing more air out of the tube, but Steven kept pushing and pulling on the hydrant and tilting it left and right to spray out more water. Three out of four ships were near the top. 

The guy smashed on the button, turn in the knob even more, snapping it off. Wires sprung from the hole. And the guy quickly shoved the button inside his pocket, berating himself internally as he watched Steven fill up the ships and the third one, "just for fun" he'd heard the werewolf say.

_Bzzzzztt_ The timer went off and Steven cheered, jumping up. "The line is complete! I won every Carnival game!! Woooooooo!!!!" 

"That's very nice, ..boy." he strained out. "Looks like you get THREE prizes." his eye twitched.

Steven turned to Connie. "Which ones do you like?"

"Mm." she looked at the plushies hanging up on the edge of the booth and pinned at the back of the wall. "I like that purple bird. OH! And that multicolored cat." 

The guy tried to keep his frown as neutral as possible as he took the stuffed animals on down. He put them on the counter. "And." he sighed. "What's the other one?"

Connie looked over at Steven. "How about you choose this one?"

Steven stepped up to the counter. "Mmmm.. how about.. THAT one." he pointed.

The guy trudged over to the stuffed chocolate chip cookie with a winking face and it's tongue sticking out. He handed the plushie to Steven.

"I chose the cookie! Because it's sweet. Like you." He bonked her lightly on the top of her head with the cookie. 

Connie laughed and hid her face in the animals to hide her blush.

Steven grabbed and slid all of the stuffed animals off the counter and into his arms. "Thanks Mr-!" he looked at the guy's name tag. "Bisky!"

"Yeah, whatever, kid." 

The two walked away and the guy picked up a piece of cardboard from the back and a marker and wrote OUT OF SERVICE and then wrote MAINTENANCE ISSUE underneath of it. He propped the sign up on the counter, pulled the gate down from the top of the booth and stooped down near the hole in the side of the counter. Sparks were flickering along the wires.

...  
"Well my stomach is feeling much better now. You wanna go on a few more rides? We have like, an hour or so left."

"Sure, I'm up for that. But first." She shifted the toy alligator from under her arm. "We're gonna need to rent a locker." 

"Right. Hehe. Well there are some much bigger lockers outside of KKL." he used the acronym that Connie had made up earlier. 

The two of them walked passed the carnival rides, _Steven being oblivious to the angry stares of the carnival game guys and at the jealous stares from the kids_. They walked pass the pool and the all of the other carnival rides they'd been on earlier and under the KIDDIE KIDDIE LAND sign.

"See? They're they go." Steven pointed up with his chin and picked up his pace.

Steven set the toys on the bench between the lockers and put in a five dollar bill into the slot. The locker door opened with a metal click and Steven and Connie started stacking the plushies on top of each other.

Steven closed the locker door and put the combination in. "There. Safe and sound and snugged like a bug in a rug." he gave her a thumbs up. Then he laughed. "Kiki told me that phrase." he snorted. "Because she likes bugs." 

"Oh, uh. Nice. So, what other rides are there? I think we went on just about every one."

"Yeah there are a couple more rides we haven't been on yet." he started walking away from the lockers. "but we can also use the extra time to go on those other rides we've already been on as well." 

"Like that airplane ride again?!" she smiled.

"Yeah! Definitely!"

Steven and Connie were just about to go back under the sign until they saw a very familiar figure flying towards them. He stopped in front of them, with his arms crossed.


	24. Chapter 24

Steven glared at the teen and Connie could already hear a very faint growl and she held on to his arm to hold him back.

"My, my. Well if it isn't tweedle dee and tweedle doofus." Tweedle_dumb_. Connie's inner voice corrected him.

"Kevin, what do you want? Don't you have other things better to do?" Connie asked.

"Well, yes. But they can wait. I rather pick. on you. two." he poked Steven's chest and Steven snapped at him with his canines, right as Kevin pulled his arm away.

He rubbed his wrist. "Hey man, control your dog."

"Don't call him that." she heard Steven snarling and she stepped in front of him. "And STOP provoking him. That's why he did that. YOU touched him first."

Kevin shrugged. "Pffft, what a baby. Can't even handle a little tap on the chest." he shook his head. "And now _you_ have to stick up for him? He has a little vampire chick to be his body guard." he chuckled. "How sad is that?"

"I'm not his body guard."

"YOU'RE the one that needs a body guard!"

"Oh do I now?" he scoffed. 

"Yeah!" he growled out.

"Mm, nope. I don't think I do." then the boy flew up and Steven watched him as he flew up and over them. "Well, catch you losers later. I'm off to Ka's escape from the silver dragon's fury ride. You know. Where all of the _actual_ tough monsters go." he looked at Steven. "Of course I know I won't be seeing at least _one_ of you there."

Steven only growled at the insult.

_"We_ don't need to go on that stupid ride. Right Steven?" she looked at him.

He shook his head. "I'm tough. And I'm just as tough as you." he pointed at Kevin. "I'm not afraid of going on that ride."

"Okay then. Guess I'll see you there." he laughed a wicked laugh and flew away towards the ride.

Steven calmed a bit once Kevin was out of sight. "I just don't know what is up with that guy."

"That's just how some people are."

Steven sighed and he looked at the rides that were just beyond the KIDDIE KIDDIE LAND sign. Then he looked up at the sign, frowning.

Connie looked up at the sign, then back to him. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know." he looked away from the sign to look at Connie. "Maybe he's right. Maybe I'm not tough.." 

"Uhg, forget about Kevin. Who cares about that?"

"But what if he's right? And you did step in like he said.." he twiddled his thumbs.

"Fine, then I won't step in anymore." she was trying not to let the irritation show in her voice.

"No, it's not." sighes. "It's not solely that. I didn't _really_ mind you stepping up it's just.. I think I just need to prove myself and go on that ride."

"You don't have to prove yourself. Kevin is just a slimeball. He doesn't know what he's talking about."

"No, I must show him who's stronger." Steven had the look of determination. "I must show him who's the alpha dog."

With Steven's babyish face, his voice cracks and his overall jovial and silly personality, it was hard to picture him as the alpha of anything. _He is just way too oblivious and way too cute. Yes he is, yes he is_ her inner voice cooed. She shook her head of the thought. "So you're going on a roller coaster.. That he may or may not even see you on.. to show him that you're tough and that you're the top alpha dog."

Steven made his heroic pose with his hands on his hips. Her gave her a minute nod. "Yes. That is correct."

"I can't really say that it makes a.._lot_ of...sense? But hey, maybe it's just a werewolf, pride ..thing?" she said "So, do know how to get to the ride quicker? I remember Kiki or Jenny saying that the ride has a pretty long wait time." 

"Hmm.. let me just ask someone." Steven ran over to a man with his two kids. He asked the guy and the tall man pointed to where Kevin had flown to and Steven nodded as he told him the directions. 

"Thanks!" then Steven ran back over to Connie. "It's not too far. It's like, five minutes from here." 

"Okay." Connie looked up at the towering, ominous ride in front of them, then she looked back down at Steven. "Lead the way."

...............

Over the course of the day, Steven had been glancing at the insanely tall ride. It was just so scary and easy to spot. But he didn't care, because he wasn't getting on it. He didn't have to worry about it. He was in his happy place with Connie in KKL. But now? Ohohohohoho~now? _NOW_ he was getting _on_ it... And he couldn't help but hope that the ride will break down and be out for the night and he wouldn't have to worry about it. 

They passed the last hotdog and popcorn stand and immediately ran into the long line. They took their places behind the last person. 

The line went by at a leisurely pace, which was by far too fast for Steven. "You know you don't have to force yourself to go on it." Steven turned to Connie to see a worried look on her face. "Werewolf stuff or not. You don't have to do it."

_I_ must_ do it.. _Because_ it is some kind of psychological werewolf stuff going on.._ The teen just shook his head. "No.. I'm.. still going to do it." he said slowly.

Connie only frowned, not saying anything else as a rebuttal.

Minutes carried on and the pair, _mainly Connie,_ tried to start a bit of small talk, but it would only die down to nothing but generic answers and mhm's.

A few more minutes later and they were passing a sign informing them that they were now at the halfway point: Appr. wait time. 25 mins.

And twenty five minutes later, they were already on the platform of the rollercoaster. Low, gutteral clicks echoed through the air as a coaster roared it's way in to an abrupt stop. The lap bar raised up and everyone was hooting and laughing and wobbling and falling into each other as they tried to reach the exit. 

The gates opened and the next group of people got on.

Steven's heart couldn't help but beat faster._Just calm down. Breath. It'll be okay.. It's just a ride. It's just a ride.. It's_ just_ a ride.. filled with huge drops.. and twists.. and loops.._ He swallowed.

Four more coasters came and went and the two stepped up to the rows of the platform. Connie turned to Steven. She looked like she was about to say something, but turned away instead.

Another coaster pulled up and Steven was able to get a better look at the roller coaster they were getting on. It was a two seater. Orange smooth seats, metal flooring.. But most importantly.. _Where are the shoulder bars?!_ Didn't every ride with loops have those arm bar thingies that you pull down over you?!? Why didn't this ride have one?! That's not safe!! 

Steven looked away and his eyes caught a warning sign with a long list of people who shouldn't ride the coaster. Pregnant women, people with heart problems, high blood pressure, asmtha, vertigo, the list kept going on and on. Steven looked away to see the crowd of people pushing to the front to get on the next cart that'd just pulled up. They were clapping and screaming too loud for his ears. The bars locked with a loud click of the coaster. Then he looked behind himself. People were saying something inaudible. Their words muffled by the loud thump of his heart. The world grew muffled say for the loud bangs and hard clicks of the next coaster pulling up to the metal track beside them. Everything about the coaster.. was just.. soo loud..

The metal doors snapped open with a loud clap as it turned on it's hinges. The sound of extremely loud footsteps clanking on the platform as people rushed to get in their carts. "......ven...."

The world started spinning in a fuzz of dull colors as he felt himself swallow back whatever was coming up. He started breathing through his mouth to get more air. "........ teven....?" 

He felt a hand on his shoulder and jolted. It was only Connie. "You look..." she watched his dilated pupils dart left and right as he took in every piece of information from his surroundings.

Her eyes darted to the right before going back to Steven. She fanned her hand backwards and gently nudged him forward for the people behind them to get to the cart.

"...Steven..." her words sounded muffled. But he heard the gate behind him clearly as it snapped back loudly into place. The coaster roared along the tracks like the sound of thunder and Steven jumped back into Connie. "Steven.. calm down." Connie stroked his head. "Let's go, we shouldn't get on here." she put an arm around his shoulder. The boy continued to look around the area, his hair tickling Connie's face. "Let's go." she tugged in his shoulder. He stood in place.

Steven didn't notice that he was deep breathing. Hyperventilating? He tried to slow his breathing down. "No.." he managed to finally say.

"_Yes_." Another coaster roared to a loud stop. And the gates clanked open.

Connie was about to gesture for the other two people to go behind them, but Steven broke out of the shoulder hug and ran towards the cart. "Come on, Connie." he strained out in a shaky voice. He wobbled down to his seat.

"He's_ still_ getting on there?" he heard the girl say to Connie. "It's a uh, "werewolf" thing." she gave them a small shrug as she walked away from them.

Connie sat down and pulled the bar down, him being too spaced out to realize that the bar was still up. And his eyes. His eyes were so huge and full of fear. 

"Steven-"

He gave a started yelp and clung onto the bar with his long claws. Then a realization came over him. "Uh.." he looked around numbly. "Oh.. we're." he swallowed. "Not moving yet." he breathed out.

"Honestly, Steven. I think this is a bad idea." she turned her head up towards the conductor. "Maybe I can have them stop the ride before it-"

"No, Connie!" he didn't mean to sound as tensed. "I need to do this." his voice was coarse and strained. "Let me do this." he learned his body over, clinging to the lap bar even more.

Connie turned away from him. "I still think this is a bad idea.." 

The guy ran over to check their lap bar before heading to the next cart. After the inspection, the boy gave the conductor a thumbs up. The teen pressed the button and the coaster made a jolt forward and slowly rasped along the gears of the tracks beneath it.

The coaster began it's ascend with a low groan up the curve as it began chugging slowly up the track.

Steven looked up to see how far up they had to go. He couldn't see the curvature end of the track. He shut his eyes and hugged the lap bar. He felt the coaster tug up into an incline that made him feel like he would fall out if he didn't cling on to the bar. He felt his nails stab through the metal of the bar. The coaster continued it's tug up the steep incline. 

Connie heard a faint whine coming from the boy and again, she was bout to say something, but didn't. The whining continued and the people in front of them looked back and right at Steven. They started chuckling. "Awee, wook at him." one of the girls cooed.

Connie raised an arm out and started rubbing his back. She could feel his heart thumping in his back. She continued to massage his back until the coaster stop with a loud clank as it backtracked a step.

Steven didn't open his eyes. "Are.. are we here?" he said in a shaky voice. He took in a breath, breathing out his mouth. 

Connie leaned to the side to see the rest of the tracks. She couldn't see the curvature of the track in front of her. Then she was curious to know how far up they'd went so far. She looked behind herself, looking pass the other people snickering or closing their eyes in the cart. Some of them looked back to do the same once they saw her do it. 

She could barely see the people on the platform. They were extremely high up and just then Connie felt her heart _or at least how she imagined a heart would feel_ dipping into her stomach. She turned to Steven who had a very uneasy look on his face. "No." she tried to sound as calm as possible. Hopefully he didnt catch on.

The boy didn't say anything else to her.

With a rush of sudden motion, Connie fell back as the weight of the air pushed her down in her seat. "Ah." she winced, turning her neck to look forward. The wind rushed into her eyes, making them water. The coaster shot out and was picking up more speed as it started it's ascend at 170 miles per hour. Connie could feel her cheeks flapping from the wind and from the vibration of the coaster. Unable to turn her neck at that time from the wind, she looked to the right with her eyes, trying to get a good look at Steven with her peripheral vision. He was breathing fast and tears were coming from his eyes, whether from the fear or the wind or both, she couldn't tell. The boy leaned his cheek further into the fabric of the bar and his face vibrated along with it.

The coaster finally reached the top and Connie didn't have enough time to look at the whole area of the park (which according to people, you could see the WHOLE entirety of the park) and the coaster rushed down right into a curve placing them upside down for a mere couple of seconds until it plunged down at a ninety degree angle. People were screaming all around them, but Connie barely had enough air to breath, let alone shout. Steven stayed frozen on the lap bar. 

The coaster made it's descend all the way down and shot up into a hill, immediately rushing down to a second hill and shooting back further up into a taller hill. Connie clenched her jaws and gripped the lap bar tightly as the coaster plunged down again. 

The coaster shot back up and rode along the tracks for a few seconds before dipping back into it's first loop. People around her screamed as the the coaster croaked and creaked as it rushed up the curve, sending them upside down before pummeling down right into a down loop. Connie's stomach dipped just as the ride did as it shot down the down loop. They were upside down again and Connie cracked open her eyes to see the water underneath of them, then she closed them just as the coaster rushed back up. It rode steady across the tracks for a few seconds before diving down into another down loop. Connie opened her eyes again to see the water and just as the coaster roared it's way back up she closed her eyes again. Steven kept his eyes clenched tightly and his grip even tighter during the first three loops.

The coaster rushed out of its second bottom loop and rattled along the tracks as it wound a bin, the force of the turn pushing everyone to their left. The coaster cleared the bin and banked left and down a spiral, flipping upside down as it cleared the spiral into a straight shot down the tracks.

The coaster continued to rush down the tracks upside down and Steven heaved and panted as they raced along the tracks. The coaster twisted them back up, only to twist them back down, upside down again. It twisted back up a second time, then quickly twisted back down. Steven squeezed the bar in his arms and he could feel the bar bending slighting under his strength. He quickly adjusted his arms, only lifting up his elbows slightly.

When they were right side up again, he finally mustered up the courage to snap his eyes open only for him to lower them to a crack as the wind flew into his eyes. Other rollercoasters roared under them and trees laid idled far underneath of them. He slid his head up to see Connie with her eyes barely cracked open. She was holding on to the bar, her back against the seat. 

Steven felt the coaster start to twist them and he closed his eyes right as the coaster spun them upside down for the first twist. By the third and last twist, Connie slowly felt herself getting used to the speed and the track of the coaster. The wind was still too much, so she kept her mouth closed, but opted out for raising her arms in the air instead, her arms flinging back into the seat. It was like being in that spaceship ride where you go so fast and you can't move anything. 

The coaster shot down through the tracks again in a straight line, then one by one, each cart titled up on it's side. People screamed as they dangled along their side for a few seconds before their cart titled back down. The coaster screeched along the tracks before it shot down to another down loop, the individual carts tilting up on their sides again, as the coaster dipped towards the water upside down. It curled back up from the loop and rocketed down another bottom loop. Connie smiled, watching the fast blur of the scenery as the ride continued to race through the rest of the track. Then she looked over at Steven and her "heart" sunk. The boy was biting the bar with his canines. "Steven?" she started choking as the air rushed down her windpipe. The boy snapped his eyes open to look at her with his dilated pupils, then he quickly looked down pass her as the coaster reached another ascend, rushing further away from the ground, as it cleared the last loop. He panted and opened his mouth wide. "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!" he cried out and started choking on the air. He dropped his head back down to the bar. He groaned, choking out a few more times before groaning again.

The coaster went down it's final descend roaring down the tracks into another twisted, placing them on their side again before tilting them back up. Then the coaster shot up one last time at a ninety degree incline. It rocketed up and down over two more hills on the incline before rocketing up to the top of the track. The coaster roared through the tunnel of the ride and the enclosed area made the metal roar and the screeching of the wheels much louder. The coaster continued it's straight path through the tunnel for just a few more seconds until there was a static, shutter-like noise as the coaster raced towards the gates to an abrupt stop. It backtracked again to a sharp stop. 

People both in the coaster and waiting in line cheered. The lap bar pulled up, with Steven still clinging on to it. He opened his eyes. "We're..Here." he pried himself off the bars and got up, falling back down. "Steven!" Connie shouted. She rushed to his side. 

"I'm, I'm fine Connie." he picked himself up slowly with her help, her arm underneath of one of his. He got up to a standing position on wobbly legs and Connie held his arm as he carried one foot out of the cart and into the steel plated platform. She waited until his other foot was out of the cart before carefully stepping out the cart herself. He wobbled a few steps and stopped, to bend down. Connie spun around, stepping in front of him to face him. His eyes were dull and he had a line of drool down his mouth. "Steven?.. Do you need a trashcan?"

He couldn't register the question. Everything started spinning and everything sounded muffled. Including the next coaster that had pulled up behind them.

"Steven..?" his ears sounded like he had cotton in them but he could definitely sense the worry in her voice. She waved a hand in front of his face and the hand slowed into brown blur in front of his eyes. "Is he okay?" he heard a muffled, distant voice as one of the employees walked right in front of him. Onlookers took glances at them as they headed down the exit. 

The world spun around more and dimmed into blurs of colors and he couldn't see anyone's faces. Just colored, blurred forms. He felt his self trip and Connie held him as his knees buckled beneath him. "I'm calling the paramedics." said the employee. He got up and snapped the walkie from his belt and clicked the button. There was a chirp. "Yes, this is..."

Steven swallowed back bile and he felt his breath flutter. He opened his mouth for some air. "Steven!" he heard Connie scream out clear as day, until the world went muffled again. He blinked his eyes. He heard Connie yell out his name again and he opened his eyes weakly to see her kneeling down beside him. His back was on the cold, metal platform. "Steven, stay with me." Connie pat his cheek. His eyes glazed over to the side as the blur of red, orange and yellow colored shirts of the paramedics filled his vision in a fuzzy blur. "Steven!" Connie sounded far away. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yesss, I knooooww. Too many Funland chapters.. I'm just long-winded xD ...Aaaanywho, just bare with me here, we have one more carnival related chapter and that's it.


	25. Chapter Twenty five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I lied. It wasn't one more carnival related chapter. Chapter 26 is still carnival related. But that's where everything starts to wind down so yeaaahhh.

Steven woke up with a slight headache. His mind was clouded and foggy as he tried to wake himself up from his...sleep? _Did_ he fall asleep? He could hardly remember anything after getting on the ride. Everything was a blur. He remembered getting on the ride. And he vaguely remembered the ride stopping and Connie helping him off the ride, but... Then what happened? There was a lot of blurred images and bright lights.. and..There was a guy? Or.. two guys? Aaand...? he remembers something being put on his face and something sticking him in his arm.. And he remembers Connie being beside him and.. *Gasp!** Connie! His heart began to beat faster. That cute, sweet, vampire girl. She was by his side.. Where was she?! 

He shook his head on the soft fabric underneath of his head, trying to wake himself up of the sleep. He groaned, pushing himself up on a shaky arm, up from the soft fabric. "Steven!" Connie grabbed his shoulders from behind and pulled him to a tight embrace. "You're okay!!" she said in his curls.

"I'm.. yeah." he strained out.

"Oh! Sorry." she loosened her grip and he was able to readjust himself to face her.

"What.. happened?" he clenched his forehead.

"You blacked out!" her hands went from his shoulders to his arms. "I _told_ you that was a bad idea."

"I knoww." He groaned some more, turning himself around and throwing his legs over the bench to sit side by side next to Connie. He leaned back and took a deep breath, his stomach going up and down as he did so.

Connie leaned back with him and the two sat in silence for just a few seconds until Connie spoke back up. "That's it for any more rides. I think we should relax for the next forty or so minutes."

Steven blinked. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion. He turned his head on the back of the bench to her. "How long was I out?"

Connie pointed to a clock in front of them on a red painted wall. Below the clock laid three benches where other passerby had sat down to rest up a bit or to eat their snacks. "About fifty minutes. The paramedics just left." she said.

"What?!"

Connie gave him an apologetic nod of her head.

"Aw man. I'm sorry Connie. I wasted so much time of your time." he looked down at his feet. "and all because I couldn't handle a rollercoaster.."

"You don't need to apologize to me, Steven."

"But it's my fault that you had to wait here for all of that time." 

Connie waved for him to stop. "It's no big deal. I actually..Kinda wanted to take another break anyway."

Steven didn't look convinced and his sad, guilty expression didn't leave his face.

"Steven, it's fiiiiine. Now come on. Let's just." she turned away from him, tilting her head back to the bench. "relax here." she closed her eyes. "We both need it."

Steven looked at her for a moment. The content, little smile she had on her face made his heart skip a beat and he felt a warm feeling in his chest, that reached his cheeks. He turned back and laid his head back on the bench as instructed and closed his eyes and just.. relaxed.. It was nice.

..But at the same time, he couldn't help but feel guilty about them having to waste nearly an hour because of him.. Maybe they could do something else? He had to think...

Then a thought came across his mind. He turned to Connie. Her face was now relaxed, her jaw slightly slacked, just a few seconds from slumber. "Hey, Connie?"

"Huh? Wha?" he eyes fluttered open. "Did I doze off?"

"I'm not sure. But.. would you like to go on a boat ride with me?"

Connie's expression turned to worry. "I.. don't think going on any more rides is such a good idea, Steven."

"Oh, I know." he said matter of factly. "But I wouldn't call this a ride. It's just a boat that takes you around the park. You can see aaaaall of Funland!"

"Mmm..I still dont think this is a good idea, Steven."

"Connie~~." he gave her a light-hearted chuckle. "I'm fine."

"That's what you told me earlier, after we got off the ride."

"Nnyeah?"

"Be_fore_ you passed out."

"But that was different." he slid off the bench. "I'm _really_ fine now. Just let me show you. Let's end this night with a nice boat ride. Whadd'ya say, Connie?" he smiled.

"I..guess _one_ little boat ride won't do you any harm-"

"Woohoo!!!" He cheered. "Come on! I know a short cut."

Steven's shortcut consisted of a run under a splashzone bridge, up a hill, passing the Dragon Triplet rides and around a bin, going behind a hot dog stand and, while jogging up the strip, they could see the water flowing gently beside them. Gray tracks laid underneath of the water. 

"See, there's the water Connie. It doesn't look bad, right?"

"Yeahhh. You're right." she followed him down a narrow path, just behind the Drop Zone. Connie could see the entrance of the park though the bushes.

The two jogged the rest of the way down the path, as trees started to loom overhead. They came across a dock filled with people. "This is it, Connie!" he ran up the stairs to the crowd of people waiting for the next boat to arrive.


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SPOILER!! For those of you who haven't watched Dreamwork's Voltron: Legendary Defenders yet or are currently watching Voltron, there's a spoiler. I'll put **** at the beginning and end of Steven's dialogue. It's only on one quote he says.

Right as Connie and Steven ran to the front of the dock, a ferry-like boat was arriving on the spot. The other side of the boat opened and everyone exited out. Then the employee opened the gate and only a handful of people got on. "Why isn't everyone getting on?" she asked Steven.The wolf shrugged.

The employee overhead her. "The rest of them are waiting for the two seater boats."

Steven turned to Connie. "Two seater boats? That must be new."

"Yup! It sure is. These are mainly for cou-"

"I want to get in one!!!" he cut the man off.

_He wants to get in a two seater?! With me?!_ Then Connie tried to ignore the thought. It didn't seem like he was thinking about it in a romantic way after all.

"... a few people already in front of you, so there might be a bit of time before you get one." the guy was telling Steven.

"I don't mind!" the boy bounced.

The employee gave him a nod and walked over to the gate just as another boat was pulling up.

Steven pivoted around to Connie. "I can't WAIT to get on this one! Oooo!! And since this is new, I wonder if they made a new track path too!"

Two ferry boats and three two seater boats came and gone. And just as another ferry boat was pulling up, they could see their two seater coming behind it, looping around the bin.

The gates opened and a group of people boarded. A few seconds later and the ferry was off.

The two seater floated across the water to a stop. The other two got off and Steven took no time in running for the small, comfy-looking boat. The boat rocked as it started it's ride down the track. 

"Even the seats are comfier than the seats on the ferry!" Steven ran his hands across the material of the blue cushions. 

"Well.. I don't know how the seats on the ferry feel, but these seats _are_ pretty comfy. I think they're even comfier than the ones in the cookie cat spaceship."

"Yeah, I think so too." he continued to run his hands along the cushions.

The boat started to turn along the tracks and the two listened to the soft sounds of the water and the soft, muffled grinding noise of the boat along the tracks.

Then something caught Connie's eye. It was something yellow floating in the water. "Hey Steven. What's that?"

"What? Where?"

"There in the water. Over there." Steven looked at where her finger was pointing at and he leaned forward. "Looks like.. hair? Someone lost their hair in the water?" 

Suddenly more hair started to come up from the surface...

Connie slid closer to Steven. "It's moving!"

Steven held his arm out in front of her as the hair started swimming towards them. His eyes focused on the random tuff's of yellow hair. Bubbles started floating up to the surface... Steven got up, crouching just halfway in front of Connie. The bubbles started swimming closer to them and Steven let out a low, warning growl.

Then a pale head poked out and Steven stopped growling. "What in the? Onion?!"

It was the same little boy that Connie had seen in the mirror house. "It's you again!" she pointed a finger at him. 

"Onion." Steven said again, looking at the boy.

He was wearing a snorkeler. He waved to them and jumped in the seat between them. "Whoa!" they both moved out of his way as he fished his hand behind the seat. He pulled out a pack of bubblegum and a few pennies. He put the change in his pocket and opened the flap on the pack. Four sticks of gum. He closed the pack up and untied a plastic bag, that was in his hand, putting the packet in it. Then he went back to fishing through the seat again. He pulled out a bobby pin and a few more pennies and two dimes. He put the change in his front pocket with the rest of his found change and put the Bobby pin in the bag. He looked on the floor of the boat. Nothing. He tied the plastic bag back up and climbed up the seat, jumping off the top and back into the water.

"Well that was.. something?" said Connie.

"Yeah, that's just his thing."

They watched as the boy swam away from the track. Then he dived down, waiting for another two seater boat to approach.They turned back around. 

"That kid.. may just get in trouble one day." said Connie. 

Steven gave her a shrug of his shoulders. "Maybe. I mean, he's been doing it for so long so." he could only give her another shrug of uncertainty.

The boat rocked along the water as it turned along the tracks.

Connie leaned back and looked up at the stars. She couldn't put her finger on it.. but it was just something so mysterious, yet so peaceful when it came to stars. She smiled, chuckling a bit to herself.

Steven looked over. "Aye, what are you over there chuckling about?"

She continued staring up at the sky. "Nothing in particular. I just love stars, is all. They're really nice."

Steven looked up. "Yeah. They really are." he breathed out. "I wonder how it is in space. Like, are there really aliens like Ronaldo says? Are there other planets up there in space? Or is it anything like Voltron?" 

"What's that?"

****

Steven sat up. "Whaaa?!?! It's a pretty cool show about these five people who are the new paladins. And they like, try to fight off the Galra empire and stuff with this somewhat sapient doggy spaceships. OH! And then it's this Altean lady who tries to steal all of this magical space, planetary energy stuff called quintessence. And she tries to go back into another timeline where her life is perfect! Aw man, Connie. It's a pretty good show." 

****

Then he thought about something. "Just um.. just stay away from the Fandom."

Connie tilted her head. "Fandom?" 

"It's a group of fanatic fans who-whoa!"

The boat hit a snag in a track and it banked left, the other side of the track catching it and pushing it back down. "Wow, they.. they should really fix that." said Connie. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." he got up and sat back down. "Heh, speaking of alternate universes, I wonder if in another universe I actually fell backwards into the water, rather than just face forward in the boat."

Connie shrugged. "Who knows. And maybe you're not even a werewolf in that universe "

Steven gasped, holding his face. "Maybe I'm a cool vampire!!" 

"Heh.. Vampires aren't that cool.." she mumbled.

"They sure are! You can like, fly-levitate and stuff. And you can turn into a bat!!" he exclaimed.

The boat turned along the tracks and they started approaching a tunnel.

"OH! Uh.. well yes, but, I mean I can't.. I never learned how to.."

"What? But why?"

"See, when you reach a certain age, your parents teach you how to turn into a bat.. but, nnng.. My parents.. _left_ before I reached that age." she bit the inside of her cheek. "So.. I never learned how."

The boat rode underneath of the tunnel. Bright lights on either side of the walls flared brightly in a straight line.

"Well when they come back, you have to tell them to teach you!" he smiled. Connie was about to correct him about that, but the werewolf only went on. "Think off all the cool bat stuff you could do!" he bounced in his chair. "You would have WINGS, super cool bat supersonic powers! You would have this screech that could like, break through glass, you can sleep upside down! And you can get tangled in people's hair!" he laughed. "Being a bat would be SO cool!" he shouted, standing up with his arms thrusted into the air. His voice echoed in the tunnel. "would be SO cool.. would be SO... be SO cool.. cool.. SO cool!" He sat back down, laughing at his own voice ricochetting off the walls.

Connie laughed along with him. "Yeah, well.. I always thought that turning into a werewolf was much cooler."

"What?! No way. All you get is more speed and longer teeth. And like, more hair, but that only brings in fleas!" he scratched his hair and his stomach to emphasize the itchiness. "The only upside IS the awesome speed that you get."

Connie shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I just find the whole werewolf esthetic to be much cooler than those of a bat. I'm just saying."

"Eeehhhh.. I think bats look cooler."

Connie smiled at him, shaking her head. "Maybe in the alternate universe vampire you and werewolf me are having the same argument."

"Maybe." he cheesed. Then he gasped again. "Or maybe BOTH of us are human! Could you really believe that?!"

Connie thought about it. "Hmm.. Being able to go out in the sun? Being able to see my reflection? Actually feeling a heartbeat? Being able to try out garlic? I guess that would be cool." then she thought some more. "Buuuuut, I wouldn't have my super speed.. or my super strength.. or any of my other powers.. or-" she gasped, touching her teeth. "Or my fangs!" she shook her head. "Nope. Nope, nope, nope. Couldn't see myself being one. Ever." 

"Your fangs is your make or break?"

"Well of course! Fangs are cool!"

"They sure are!" Steven grew out his teeth into his werewolf canines. He laughed.

"See! I also find it pretty cool that you could shapeshift any part of your body."

He shape shifted his teeth back. "But only into a wolf. It's not like I'm an alien who can shapeshift into anything. Now THAT would be cool." 

"What would you shape shift into?"

He thought about it. Then he squealed. "I would turn all my fingers into cats!"

"But..Why?"

"Because they're so cute and adorable!"

"But don't you think that cat fingers won't work well as well.._regular_ fingers? You wouldn't be able to hold a phone, or a plate of food.. And when you get food, they're going to eat it before you even get to it."

"Oh. I.. guess I didn't think that through, huh? Heh."

"But you're right about them being cute and adorable though."

"Yeah! And I would even name one of them Cat Steven."

"Of course you would." she smiled. 

The boat rocked along the path as it turned into another tunnel. The walls were spray painted with graffiti. Pfft.. teens and their tagging..

"Those look pretty cool." Steven said, looking at the graffiti art on top of the original art on the walls.

"Yeah, it looks like they've put in a lot of work. Though it kinda sucks they had to vandalize the place."

"Freedom of speech, Connie. What can ya say? Teens love to express themselves." she didn't know if he was being a smart alec or what. With the happy, childish smile on his face, it was hard to tell.

They continued drifting along and looking at the different tags on the walls, until the tunnel ended and they were met with trees towering over them.

Steven used that time to sniff the air of the new scenery. "These trees are real!" he took a deep breath. "Ah, everything smells so fresh and fruity here." 

"I think you're just smelling that smoothie stand over there." Connie gestured at a side of a smoothie stand nearly blocked behind the trees.

Steven sniffed in that direction. "Yup. It was that..." he turned back around an continued smelling the air. "But the trees are still definitely real!"

Connie tried to sniff the air. She had a better sense of smell than most monsters, but she could in NO way compete with a werewolf. "These trees all smell the same to me."

"Werewolf nose, Connie." he tapped his nose.

Something was moving in the bushes behind Steven and Connie looked behind him. Of course it was Onion again..The little boy was still sporting his snorkeler and the plastic bag in his hand had grown bigger. He ran from one bush to another. Then he crouched down, looking at the two through the leaves. 

"Yeah, we can still see you!" Connie shouted at him.

"Huh?" Steven turned around. "Onion, you're still here? Actually, I'm not that surprised."

The boat was turning the bin to another tunnel. "You know, what you're doing is wrong!" Connie shouted just as the boat entered the tunnel.

Steven just laughed. "Yeah, Onion can get really mischievous. That's the reason why I like to stay away from him. That and.. so I can stay away from his pranks." he looked back to take another look at Onion, but the tunnel was already blocking his view from outside. He turned back around. "Yeah, you wouldn't guess that he was raised by Vidalia or Yellowtail. They're such sweet people." 

"Never met them."

"You HAVE to meet them one day! They're like, the COOLEST sea creatures you would EVER meet!"

"Wait, so they're sea creatures, but the boy is wearing a snorkeler?"

"Yeah, about that.. Onion was actually found by Nanefua. She was going to raise him like how she raised all of the others, but it was during the time where Vidalia and Yellowtail were trying to have babies, but they couldn't." Steven shrugged. "I still don't know how babies are made.. but when I asked them if I could help them out in anyway to help them get some babies they only laughed. Don't know why they did that..Anyway, Nanefua proposed they adopted him. It just seemed like a sign to them. They couldn't make any babies and someone just so happened to leave a baby, all alone in the middle of Beach City." 

"Wow.. I guess I kinda feel bad for the little guy now." 

"Why? He has a loving family. And he has people who really care about him."

"But.. doesn't he ever wonder who his parents were?"

"I don't know his take on it. I never asked him. That thought never really came across my mind. But I remember Nanefua trying to look for them a few times, but couldn't. But that was when he was still a baby and right before she let Vidalia and Yellowtail adopt him."

Connie nodded her head as she listened to the story. "Wow.. Well that's nice that he got to have a new, loving family."

"It's MORE than nice. It's beautiful! And amazing!" 

The boat went down a small dip. "Woohoo! This dip is new!" he cheered.

"Maybe they'll be more."

"Yes! We need more! More dips! More dips! More dips!" he banged has hands on the seat. Connie thought about joining him, but being so carefree and childlike was his thing. Then she thought, eh, what the heck. She joined him. "More dips! More dips! More dips! More-!"

The boat stopped abruptly and the two fell forward, their hands barely catching the front bar of the boat. Steven pushed himself back up and looked at his hands. "Did I.. Did I break the boat?" then he looked down at the seats then down at the floor of the boat.

"I don't think so.. I think the ride broke dow-"

There was a loud crackling sound above them that made them jump.

The inacom crackled for a few moments until a loud voice blared through the speaker. "ATTENTION LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! ATTENTION! MAYOR DEWEY WILL BE HOLDING AN EMERGENCY MEETING HELD IN THE CAROUSEL OF PROGRESSION! EVERYONE IS TO ATTEND THIS VERY IMPORTANT MEETING FOR A VERY IMPORTANT AND DIRE ANNOUNCEMENT-"

"DIRE?" Connie whispered to Steven.

"-GAIN, EVERYONE MUST QUICKLY BUT SAFELY GO TO THE CAROUSEL OF PROGRESSION FOR A VERY IMPORTANT AND DIRE ANNOUNCEMENT!" there was the sound of sirens at the end of the announcement. Then a voice came back on "EVACUATE... EVACUATE... EVACUATE... EVACUATE... EVACUATE..."

The boat turned on with a sudden jump and it continued its smooth ride down the path.

"I wonder what's going on?" said Steven. "He's never had to make an announcement so last minute before. Even with urgent meetings, they would always inform us a few hours or a day in advance. Something must be going on." 

Connie couldn't help but think about the event from yesterday morning.. They don't really know _what_ happened to those three figures or where they went.. Could it be that Mayor Dewey or another one if his workers had found something? She was about to ask Steven for his take on it, but she quickly remembered that he doesn't know anything about what happened yet.

_I should really tell him._ she thought. _Right after the announcement._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And NOW we're gettin' somewheeeeere.
> 
> ...Or are we? Pffft, I don't know. I have to think of something to write xD


End file.
